Her Blueprint: The International Museum of Women Blog

Somewhere in Between the Darkness and the Light: The Music of Fat Transfer

2012-02-16T07:36:00.000-08:00

Singer and songwriter Fat Transfer. Picture courtesy of the artist

Fat Transfer is an Oakland, California based artist who owns her emotions. Her tunes come wrapped in a sweet package and also pack a serious punch. On the track "we r enemies" from her latest EP Highly Sensitive Supremacist, she sings, "this isn't MTV, you can't treat people so irresponsibly." The sound of her music is lo-fi and delicately layered. Bells and melodious synthesizer chords harmonize perfectly with pulsating drumbeats.Some tracks are down tempo and contemplative, while others are outright dance tracks.

How would you describe your sound?
Dreamy and sentimental. Cartoonish sometimes. Sad, lovesick, introverted. My friend said it is sounds like Hall and Oates but scarier. I've also heard it sounds like massage music.

On 'Highly Sensitive Supremacist', you sing candidly about tapping into emotions that aren't necessarily considered nice or acceptable (naming enemies, giving up on a struggle, allowing oneself to be sad and in pain). What was your inspiration for exploring those themes? Why is the not so nice stuff important?
One of my favorite books is called The Highly Sensitive Person by Elaine Akon. It describes sensitivity as an neurological orientation as opposed to a defect of the wimpy. Anyway, I identify as one of thse HSP's. My emotions demand a lot of attention. All of them, including ones that are societally devalued, like uncertainy and hopelessness. Challenging feelings are important because they're as big a part of my life and identity as pleasant ones. I view all emotions as spirit guides. They can be cryptic, contradictory, straight up bat-shit whacky. But when I'm listening and decoding them, life feels less exhausting and scary. I find that if I ignore them, my mental, physical and emotional health suffers. Making music is one of the ways I tend to them.

Fat Transfer in concert. Image courtesy of the artist

What is your creative process like? Do you spend a lot of time writing? Do you like to improvise?
I really like to use the analogy of taking a shit. I usually feel a build up of emotions and I'll get to the urge to start writing or playing around on Garage Band and stuff just gets pooped out. Often the lyrics and music are created separately and combined later. I'm not a very good improviser. I'm can be pretty calculated. I think that accounts for some of the stiff, static (meant affectionately) ways my melodies sound sometimes.

What instruments, etc. do you work with?
I mostly use electronic instruments. Keyboards and Garage Band effects. I'm a pretty non-technical, minimalistic composer so I rely on layering to make things sound more complex than they are. I also use guitar, vocal, effects, four track cassette recorders and samples. I do most of my recording through Garage Band right now. I like reaaaallly simple, accessible, almost paint-by-number recording software.

You went on tour over the summer, right? What was that experience like? What areas did you play? Any highlights of your journey?
I went on tour with a rad queer punk band, Cher Horowitz, which is comprised of some of my favorite people. They had planned a U.S. summer tour for almost a year and let me tag along. I'm eternally grateful! I met up with them in Atlanta and followed them up the east coast across the north midwest and back down the west coast to Oakland. The experience was one of the best of my life. Members of the band were going through a lot of intense personal challenges but were so sweet and supportive to each other's needs. The folks we played for were almost always receptive and welcoming. Nice, at the very least. Being a queer artist is so awesome, cuz there are all these other Queers making smart things and being really excited to see each other and share stuff.

What's next for you? Do you have anything coming up that you'd like to share?
Right now I'm in the middle of a Bay Area couch surfing project. I'm couch surfing for an extended amount of time to save money to buy a bus and convert it into a house that i can tour and live in. If anybody reading this knows folks in the Bay Area I can stay with please email me: bossabot@gmail. I have a few songs that feel like the beginnings of a new album. Usually after 6 months to year, I've shitted enough new songs for an album :)

For more on Fat Transfer, visit her website where you can download both of her albums for free.

Tale of Two Mothers

2012-02-15T09:08:00.000-08:00

[Editor's Note: The following is a guest post by Kate Grant, CEO of The Fistula Foundation. It was previously published in The Huffington Post on May 8, 2011. The Fistula Foundation is a partner of IMOW for our new online exhibition, MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe.]

Nurse and patient in Ethiopia

In spring of 1999 a young woman named Cipriana got married in Huambo Province in central Angola, and became pregnant with her first child. That same spring, after a wedding I think my own mother thought would never happen, I too became pregnant with my first child in New York. Like most first time mothers, as my due date approached I was simultaneously anxious and thrilled, waiting for my big day. Cipriana too was excited about soon becoming a mother -- a role that would give her status and a place in her community. Her labor and mine began with the same universal pain, growing gradually excruciating as the day progressed. After nearly 24 hours we both remained in labor, and here our stories diverge.

When I went into active labor at midnight my husband and I headed off to the hospital. As night turned to day and day turned to night again, after four hours of pushing, my big baby was lodged in my small frame, not going anywhere; a C-section was ordered. I whimpered with a sense of personal defeat and disappointment. But, other than a bruised ego, the only sign of that agonizing labor left after delivery was a small line of staples below my "bikini line" where my healthy baby boy had been removed from my exhausted body.

Kate Grant and a fistula patient

For Cipriana a world away the end game of her labor could not have been more different from my own. Like most mothers in sub-Saharan Africa, she endured a traditional home birth, and with no emergency obstetric care available, her labor continued there even when it was clear she needed help. Forget pain killing drugs. Forget the C-section. Once the baby died in utero she expelled the lifeless body, swept into eternity on a tide of pain and unbearable heartbreak. That's an ugly and deeply, upsetting image. But, the hard truth is that every day that is the reality for thousands of women and their stillborn babies.

But, Cipriana's situation grew worse after her labor ended, when she discovered that she was left with a large obstetric fistula, an injury created by her extended obstructed labor that left her leaking urine constantly. Her young husband quickly abandoned her and she returned home to be cared for by her mother; both she and her mother moved outside their village because of Cipriana's odor and stigma. For a decade she lived as a social outcast sustained by the love of her mother, until she received much needed surgery to repair her fistula at the Central Evangelical Hospital in Lubango.

Cipriana was just one of the 2.6 million mothers who deliver a stillborn baby each year, and one of the estimated 100,000 who develop a fistula. Five to ten percent of births are obstructed, yet only four percent of women in most African countries get C-sections. You can do that math. That means of course that an awful lot of laboring women don’t get the help they need during labor; the result: lots of dead babies and injured women. We tiptoe around this tragic, often preventable reality. Think of the word "stillbirth". Sounds peaceful, serene, and almost divine. So much gentler than dead baby or grey lifeless body, with the word birth even being a cruel hoax, since the child will never take a breath and their mother's soul will be forever changed by an immutable, indelible loss.

Not a day goes by that I don't look at my own energetic freckle-faced fourteen year old boy -- brimming with life and possibility -- and recognize how very lucky I am to have him. Had I tried to deliver him in most places in sub-Saharan Africa, he would have died, a pure and simple 'stillbirth.' And me, who knows? Would I have awoken the next day to a urine soaked bed, the sure sign of a fistula, or would I have died in childbirth when my exhausted uterus ruptured?

The world renowned Egyptian Obstetrician/Gynecologist Mahmoud Fathalla, said it better than anyone "Women are not dying because of diseases we cannot treat. They are dying because society has yet to make the decision that their lives are worth saving." The same can be said for most of those stillborn babies and injured women. We know what works to stop this carnage: prenatal care, family planning services, access to skilled birth attendants and emergency obstetric care.

So today, open your mouth along with your mind and your heart; share this truth with someone you care about: each year millions of mothers are dying or being horribly injured and babies are dying needlessly. Then, if you're up to it, do something else. We are citizens of the richest and more innovative country the world has ever known. We've got the power collectively to bend the curve. If you are a letter writer, write your Senator or Congressman/woman and ask them to support US foreign aid for maternal and child health and funding for UNFPA. Or go on Google: find an organization that speaks to your heart. Act. Do it for your mother. Do it for your wife. Do it for your sister. Do it for your child. Do it for yourself. The late genius John Lennon had it right: "Apathy isn't it."

An Overlooked Heartbreak in "Drive"

2012-02-13T15:16:00.000-08:00

Recently, I watched Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive -- due in part to my increasing fascination with the film's hero, Ryan "Hey Girl" Gosling. The 80s-themed font of the intro credits, the Taxi Driver vibe, and the soundtrack were slick and invited viewers into the film's atmosphere immediately. It was really a film buff's dream, and I'm simply thankful that it introduced me to the musical stylings of Kavinsky. Just look at the opening credits:

Refn's film is based on a novel by James Sallis and centers around a lonely figure who is defined largely by his exceptional driving skills. His persona is so mysterious and lonely, in fact, that the audience is never interred as to his actual name.

The mysterious nature of The Driver's identity is only revealed by his actions -- he works as a quiet mechanic by day and does side work as a stunt driver in films -- and he explores a darker side of society by working as a heist driver on occasion. When one of his "jobs" goes wrong after a botched robbery, he becomes a wanted man who must also protect the object of his affection, Irene (played by Carey Mulligan).

And, this is where my heart breaks a bit. Obviously, I really enjoyed this film. In fact, I enjoyed it so much that I went to a friend's house the very next day and pled with friends to watch it with me again. We had a good time, and the running dialogue that we contributed was a lot of fun. After I got home, I decided to research it further in order to get a better sense of how Refn cultivated such a fine work. What I read, however, regarding his casting for the film was unsettling and confusing.
In my opinion, the casting signaled a lost opportunity for widespread visibility regarding the Latino community in film. Here's the A/V Club interview text that triggered my musings:

And of course, the biggest strange situation was Carey Mulligan, because in the book, she is Latina, because he moves into a Latino area.

Um, well, okay...that's kind of a big detail. So why did Refn change it? Part of the reason, he says, is his view of the love story as an element of the storyline:

The movie needed the love story to be everything. It needed to be the heart of the movie. I was casting a lot of men and a lot of fantastic actresses, but in my mind, the way it had worked out, I just couldn’t get it to click. I’m a fetish person. I make films based on what I would like to see, not always understanding it, but what I would like to see.

Oh. It took awhile to really get to what Refn thought about this glaring shift in casting, which I think is a bit different than, say, changing a scene to exaggerate an emotion or manipulating the order of the narrative in a film in order to be as effective as a novel, given the usual two-hour running time for viewing. According to the Wikipedia entry regarding Refn's casting, in which the actual Press Kit was cited, this is how the director summed up his decision:

Despite having never seen any of her films, Refn was sufficiently convinced by her talent and felt compelled to cast her in Drive. After making changes to both the script and character to accommodate her, he believed that it would ultimately enhance the romantic element of the story: "It made it more of a Romeo & Juliet kind of love story without the politics that would in this day and age be brought into it if you had different nationalities or different religions."

The quote also appeared in a Screened.com interview...but, I still really hoped it wasn't true. Then, I found it and was totally dismayed!

I checked around to see if perhaps a Latino voice would arise with a similar concern. The A/V Room's Latino Review section offered a thoughtful analysis, which did touch upon the issue of race relations, but did not ruminate upon the somewhat insulting reason behind Refn's decision to leave out an interracial love story. And while it can be argued that Stardard Gabriel's (played by Oscar Isaac) presence as Irene's husband -- who returns home after serving time for robbery -- offers a character for audiences to understand beyond his crimes and as an unwittingly cheated (and very devoted) spouse. I agree with this argument but it's also proof that Refn was willing to place at least some level of cultural politics into the narrative. Furthermore, as the Latino Review pointed out, the main villain, Nino (played by Ron Perlman) is a Jewish mobster that voices strong racialized emotions at one point:

The dilemma of Perlman’s Nino is quite interesting in the fact that he wishes to stand apart from the east coast mob who look down upon his Jewish heritage, but his work should be at the level of Brooks since their characters are business partners. Perlman comes across as a bully with thugs who do his work for him, not a real threat.

Nino's dilemma is revealed at a moment during which his accomplices discuss just how big of a mess they've created by robbing another mobster. As a way of explaining why he must kill Gosling's character and clean up the mess, he eventually rests his actions as a way of standing up to the racist East Coast mobsters that he feels disrespected by at times.

It appeared to me, as I sat engrossed, that race was not a topic that was completely off the table. It's a shame that Refn chose not to extend his Sundance Film Festival standing ovation-worthy skills to the subject of interracial romance, which is understood by many (including myself) as a passionate and brave endeavor that fits perfectly alongside Romeo and Juliet. There are loads of great Latina actors (Rosario Dawson, for instance) and yet-to-be-discovered Latinas that would have supported this film just as well.

What's funny is that Refn criticized Lars von Trier's miscalculated joking about Nazis and Hitler in a Cannes Interview article (just sayin'). I'll still enjoy viewing this film, and rocking out to the excellent soundtrack, but I'll always be a little disappointed that the love story changed.

Interview with Lebanese Photographer Elsie Haddad

2012-02-09T12:25:00.000-08:00

Freelance photographer Elsie Haddad began interacting with the camera as a means of connecting with the world.   According to Haddad, since she was very young the various elements of capturing images to developing prints and film played an instrumental role in her decision to use photography as a form of self-expression.

I had the pleasure to speak with Elsie and here's a brief excerpt of our interview as well as some of her images.

Tell us about your latest projects.

I just finished a photography project about old shops in Beirut; it will be published in Inge Morath online magazine in early 2012 so I’m editing it. I’m working on a project about this small group of people who spend their time by the sea during the whole year, as well as revisiting some old unfinished work.  

How does your culture influence your work?

If you mean by culture the knowledge that I inherited from my studies and experience, I have to say that it’s all coming from the West, and this plays a major role in creating a westernized point of view on issues and problems in my society. I am aware of this and it’s very hard to find this thin line of keeping the authenticity of my approach towards the subject I’m working on…it’s more important to me that the outcome of the work would be accessible to the people involved before any other potential audience.

What are you looking to convey with your images?

Nowadays it’s very easy to do a beautiful photo. For me, aesthetical awareness is not enough to make a good photograph. We’re in a stage where advanced technology is used to create well-made, sharp, and appealing images but they lack content…whether I convey a feeling, an impression, or a rational idea through my images, they have to have human values.

Which photographers have influenced your work?

William Klein; as an innovator in documentary & fashion photography. Larry Clark; as a daring photographer who portrayed the juvenile delinquency in a very powerful way. Sophie Calle for her autobiographical work. Joseph Koudelka; silent war photographer who doesn’t really refer to himself as a photographer. Robert Capa; for his devotion and big heart. He gave photojournalism new political and humanitarian dimensions.

The Abortion Debate: How It Infringes Upon Women's Health and Rights

2012-02-03T13:39:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago, The Lancet, a well respected medical journal, published a study reporting the trends of worldwide abortion from 1995 to 2008. The outcome was disheartening: Rates of unsafe abortion had increased from 1995 to 2008. Amidst sustained campaigning against abortion from religious organizations, the pro-choice study focused on the religious right and how deeply they are infringing upon a woman’s choice and negatively affecting women's health.

According to the study, banning abortion does nothing to reduce the number of women who attempt it. In fact, banning abortion actually increases the abortion rate, while it simultaneously makes the procedure much less safe for the woman. This results in an increase of women dying from unsafe abortions.

The fact is, there are many nonreligious reasons why women choose to have an abortion. There are multiple realities surrounding every woman's choice, all of which religious institutions rarely take into account. Any women facing an unplanned pregnancy takes into strong consideration her own health and having enough financial means to give birth to then raise a healthy child. (The United States, for example, has one of the most expensive healthcare systems in the world.) She thinks about the timing and spacing as well as number of pregnancies she wants to have. Length of pregnancy leave versus cost of childcare. Government support. Social programs. How much familial support is possible. Cost of education. The factors of how to assess quality of life and care are beyond extensive. Yet, strong themes also emerge when looking at abortion access and safety in the realm of religious argument.

Abortion Access and Safety Around the World

In the United States, minority women are far more likely to undergo abortion, have their children taken into care, or be unable to financial support their children due to racial inequalities. None of this has any direct correlation to religious affiliation, but it does speak directly to health policy and who the policymakers are making decisions about women's health in America. Increasingly, religion and politics are becoming more and more entwined in the United States.

In South American countries, where women have no choice because abortion remains illegal, many children are born into impoverished backgrounds with little hope of ever leaving them. Latin America and the Caribbean are also both developing countries where women face health statistics that are beyond alarming. In Latin America, 95 percent of abortions are unsafe. The New York Times reports, "In Peru, the average is nearly two abortions per woman over the course of her reproductive years."

According to the BBC, 97 percent of abortions in Africa are unsafe. There, women face restrictive abortion laws so the woman is forced into a situation where she has little choice in her own family planning methods.

Most illegal. Almost every single abortion unsafe. How is this supporting women's health?

Frida Kahlo - Henry Ford Hospital

America's Past Role in Women's Global Health

The United States contributes major forms of aid to developing countries, most of which is under the jurisdiction of medical care and research. However, in 2001, George W. Bush reinstated the global gag rule, which barred organizations from receiving funding if they performed abortive services. In addition to this, a caveat was introduced closing off access to other contraceptives, such as condoms and birth control. (In 2009, President Obama officially repealed the gag rule.)

In developing countries, where clinics often have multiple services serving large underserved populations, this pull on funding was devastating. The outcome had a three-prong effect: it took away access to family planning; it forced women who may have needed a safe medical procedure underground; and, it increased the risk of high risk infections such as HIV. Overall, there was not a reduction in abortion, but an increase to endangering women’s lives. Under this light, it comes as no surprise that rates of unsafe abortions rose from 1995 to 2008 while the global gag rule was in effect under the Bush regime.

Separating George W. Bush from the religious right is almost impossible, but even with the global gag rule currently lifted, keep in mind a vast percentage of foreign aid in developing countries predominantly comes from Western countries and charities. For example, Catholic and Christian organizations have created many medical facilities in developing countries where there is extensive need. However, the push of religious ideas from major aid providers forces women away from their cultural beliefs and subjects their choice and health to the religious view of the provider. In many cases, this is the the strict anti-abortion and contraceptive rules of the Church.

Greater participation of women is needed in all levels of society, particularly those women fighting for the removal of global health disparities at the policy level. There is also great hope in foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that are dedicated to improving health for women in line with the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Her Blueprint's Senior Editor Kate Stence also contributed to this blog post.

Maternal Self-Esteem

2012-02-03T12:48:00.000-08:00

[Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Dr. Jessica Zucker,a licensed clinical psychologist in Los Angeles specializing in women's health with a focus on fertility, prenatal and postpartum adjustments, attachment, and transitions in motherhood. Learn more about Jessica at her website.

This story is part of a new, ongoing series of guest posts about motherhood. Visit IMOW's new online exhibition MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe at mama.imow.org ]

Flickr / Mario Izquierdo

Body change is shrouded in fear. Iconic female bodies are tiny, toned, tight, and most definitely without the permanence of stretch marks. Pregnancy creates a cultural conundrum. On the one hand, culture secretly (though not so quietly sometimes) mandates that women work their hardest to look as though their bodies are as slight as a whisper, taking up little to no space, while simultaneously exuding sexiness and a little bit of sass. The ever-changing prenatal body is creating, carrying, and nurturing new life and with that comes a robustness that potentially stirs unresolved issues, handed down from culture, family, and shaky self-esteem.

When self-esteem is predicated on the number that pops up on the scale each morning or hinges on whether or not you can fit into freshly dried jeans today that you wore comfortably yesterday, pregnancy may present a warranted wake-up call.

All too often I hear rumblings of regret, from day one of the positive pregnancy test up to at least one-year postpartum, about the maternal body’s metamorphosis. “Instead of relishing my ever-increasing curves, I find myself comparing my body to my pregnant co-worker, as if being smaller will render me the winner of an unspoken competition.“ “Someone asked me if I’m having twins, and I’m only 25 weeks pregnant with a singleton, what am I going to look like by 40 weeks? There is nothing beautiful about being this huge.” “I’m the size of a whale, a house, a continent!” and “I’m ready to get back to my pre-pregnancy weight. I want my body to be normal again. I’m sick of this bulging belly, drooping breasts, and not feeling like my old self.”

Rarely are women enjoying the idyllic “glow” rumored to accompany pregnancy. Instead, pregnant women often find it an arduous task to establish a sense of comfort in their newfound maternal skin. More often than not women report being mildly or severely tormented by the myriad body changes occurring throughout pregnancy and beyond. In fact, pre-pregnancy body image challenges that get reinvigorated during this transformative time may be a regrettable source of anxiety and/or depression. Studies have found that “anxiety disorders are more frequent than depression during pregnancy, and at least as common as depression during the postpartum period, if not more so. Depression and anxiety are kind of like thunder and lightning- they just go together” (Wiegartz & Gyoerkoe, 2009). Even seemingly sturdy pre-pregnancy self-esteem can be undermined by a tidal wave of disorienting anxiety.

Self-esteem is an aspect of personality that can be cultivated across the lifespan. Dedicated introspection and mindfully growing self-understanding allows for increased ease and fruitful connections. Pregnancy may awaken previously untouched, powerful feelings about self-worth, body image, and familial relationships. Some say that pregnancy is miraculous. Yet, undigested internal struggles will not miraculously disappear during pregnancy. Instead, a resurgence of unknown or pushed away fears may bubble to the surface during this nascent experience. Bolstering your sense of self-worth during pregnancy by thoughtfully examining unresolved issues may harness a greater sense of postpartum confidence and peace of mind as parenthood emerges.

Parents are created not born. The process of becoming a parent is marked by pregnancy and is a lifelong journey filled with opportunities for growth and development. Who we are at any given time invariably gets imbued into how we negotiate parenting. Pregnancy provides a ripe opportunity to deeply understand the parenting we received, the parenting we hope to provide, and perhaps most importantly, delving into places of internal unrest with the aim of resolving historical pain. When we parent from the inside out, we benefit enormously by establishing self-esteem that is tenacious and authentic.

Intergenerational transmission of self-esteem may be a worthwhile concept to ponder during this gestational period. Hardy parental self-esteem models enhanced flexibility of mind and a comfort in the world while self-worth riddled with insecurity and ambivalence may yield enduring anxiety across generations. “The development of the child’s whole personality is influenced by many things, including genetics, temperament, physical health, and experience. Parent-child relationships offer one very important part of the early experience that directly shapes a child’s emerging personality. Emotional intelligence, self-esteem, cognitive abilities, and social skills are built on this early attachment relationship. How parents have reflected on their lives directly shapes the nature of that relationship” (Siegel & Hartzell, 2003).

Arming ourselves with prenatal parenting skills and reflective emotional insight can help garner a graceful pregnancy and postpartum adjustment period. Self-esteem, along with hormonal shifts and social support, play a central role in post-pregnancy transitions. Postpartum blues, depression, and anxiety are too common to be ignored. Even the most ironclad sense of self-esteem can be readily dismantled by the impact of postpartum mood disorders. “The juxtaposition of one of life’s greatest gifts and one of life’s most unkind illnesses is what makes postpartum depression different from depression that is unrelated to childbirth” (Kleiman, 2009). Feeling unbearably hopeless, frighteningly disconnected or overtaken by crippling anxiety can leave someone who previously felt like Super Woman unrecognizably lifeless. This is all the more reason to take time out to do the reflective work necessary to feel grounded in who you are as a woman and a mother-to-be.

Parenthood is a perennial adventure. Babies do not arrive with universal instruction manuals spelling out the various ways we can help them thrive in the world. Creating secure, healthy self-esteem in our children comes from a much deeper place within, not necessarily from anything we read in a how-to book. Asking for help when we need it, identifying our strengths as a parent, and attempting to be consciously aware of stumbling blocks promise to engender a mindful childhood for your offspring. Research has shown that “parents who themselves did not have ‘good enough parents’ or who even had traumatic childhoods can make sense of their lives and have healthy relationships. More important for our children than merely what happened to us in the past is the way we have come to process and understand it. The opportunity to change and grow continues to be available throughout our lives” (Siegel & Hartzell, 2003).

Building self-esteem within our children begins before they are born. It begins within our selves.

This post was previously published on the Huffington Post and PBS.org.

What Makes Us Different Vs. What Makes Us Alike

2012-01-27T15:40:00.000-08:00

“What makes us different is so much less important than what makes us alike.”

– Oprah Winfrey

Do you think of a specific person right away when you hear this statement? I did. And it struck a chord with me because I realize I feel this way about not just one person, but several. In fact, for most of us, this is probably true.

It is said, “Like attracts like;” or “Show me who your friends are, and I can tell who you are.” Therefore, we might be more apt to look at this in terms of our friends -- what we have in common with them being what makes us friends. However, the way I think this was meant is in light of race and culture – our differences and our similarities – and how the likenesses are that which gives us strength as a global community.

A very real and present example of this today may be: our cultural and racial identities as Americans, compared to, say, that of Iraqi, Afghani, Jordanian, or Turkish women. We all see the differences in religion, in dress, and their women’s disallowance of certain freedoms we American women typically take for granted. But, what we do not often stop to realize is just how much they are like us: They care about and have deep concern for their families, their children; they undoubtedly miss their loved ones who are also off fighting in a war; and they take pride in who they are and what they believe in. Similarly, they have hobbies and crafts that they do to pass the time, (or by which they make a living). These all are similar ideals, thoughts, and ways of living that you and I are likely to have.

What does this mean to you and me? Hopefully, it means that we realize there are similar traits among our fellow Americans and fellow citizens of the world, which often divide us: Muslim against Jew, Catholic against non-denominational, gay against heterosexual, or White against Hispanic or Native American. But, what comes to my mind, from these instances in our similarities with Iraqis, for example, is that if nothing else, they bond us. I, for one feel more compassionate towards them when I realize those seemingly “small” details of their lives. They have children, too; they have loved ones who are suffering, too; and they want to see an end to violence, just as we do. I recall the early days of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, when every day I would look, cringingly, while we passed a hillside while on the train, covered in white crosses: one for each American life lost. There are many such hillsides – marked or unmarked – so many places in the world.

So, my challenge to all of us is that next time you encounter someone whose looks, views, or way of life is different from yours, take a moment to see what you might have in common, instead. Perhaps ask yourself: If he or she was sitting before me, what would I ask them in order to know them better? Or more to the point: How would I go about suggesting a commonality we may have? I know from personal experience just how rewarding such a revelation can be.

Once you have stepped outside of your “comfort zone” to see another culture or way of life through someone else’s eyes, your world grows. You will feel how such an eye-opening experience can help you and enlighten you. And, all this is possible because you chose to find out, not, "how am I different from this person next to me?," but how are we the same. At the end of the day, and in the words of former President John F. Kennedy: “What unites us is far greater than what divides us.”

CLIO TALKS BACK: Debating the Role and Responsibilities of Mothers in Early 20th Century America

2012-01-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Anna Howard Shaw

Concern about falling birthrates in the 1890s provoked a number of politicians on both sides of the Atlantic to speak out against women’s higher education and women’s participation in the industrial labor force, as well as women’s ostensible self-indulgence. Married women, especially mothers, they said, should be at home, not in the workforce or out running about, organizing mothers’ clubs and “interfering” in public affairs.

In the United States, President Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) addressed the issue as a featured speaker for the National Congress of Mothers, held in Washington, D. C., in March 1905. He asserted that women were not doing their duty to the nation. “The primary duty of the woman,” he insisted, “was to be the helpmeet, the housewife, and mother” – not a breadwinner; that was the husband’s role. Objecting to the notion that families should limit themselves to two children, he proclaimed that the result would be “race suicide.”

Women’s rights advocates quickly countered Roosevelt’s remarks. Anna Howard Shaw (1847-1919), a trained physician and a licensed minister, presided over the National American Woman Suffrage Association (NAWSA) from 1904 to 1915. In June 1905, at the NAWSA annual convention, she directly answered the president. Here is an excerpt from her speech:

When the cry of race suicide is heard, and men arraign women for race decadence, it would be well for them to examine conditions and causes, and base their attacks upon firmer foundations of fact. Instead of attacking women for their interest in public affairs and relegating them to their children, their kitchen, and their church, they will learn that the kitchen is in politics; that the children’s physical, intellectual, and moral well-being is controlled and regulated by law; that the real cause of race decadence is not the fact that fewer children are born, but to the more fearful fact that, of those born, so few live, not primarily because of the neglect of the mother, but because men themselves neglect their duty as citizens and public officials. If men honestly desire to prevent the causes of race decadence, let them examine the accounts of food adulteration, and learn that from the effect of impure milk alone, in one city 5,600 babies died in a single year. Let them examine the water supply, so impregnated with disease that in some cities there is continual epidemic of typhoid fever. Let them gaze upon the filthy streets, from which perpetually arises contagion of scarlet fever and diphtheria. Let them examine the plots of our great cities, and find city after city with no play places for children, except the streets, alleys, and lanes. Let them examine the school buildings, many of them badly lighted, unsanitary, and without yards. Let them turn to the same cities, and learn that from five to a score or thousand children secure only half-day tuition because there are not adequate schoolhouse facilities. Let them watch these half-day children playing in the streets and alleys and viler places, until they have learned the lessons which take them to evergrowing numbers of reformatories, whose inmates are increasing four times as rapidly as the population. Let them follow the children who survive all these ills of early childhood,until they enter the sweat-shops and factories, and behold there the maimed, dwarfed, and blighted little ones, 500,000 of whom under 14 years of age are employed in these pestilential places. Let them behold the legalized saloons and the dens of iniquity where so many of the voting population spend the money that should be used in feeding, housing, and caring for their children. Then, if these mentors of women’s clubs and mothers’ meetings do not find sufficient cause for race degeneracy where they have power to control conditions, let them turn to lecturing women. It is infinitely more important that a child shall be well born and well-reared than that more children shall be born. It is better that one well-born child shall live than that two shall be born and one die in infancy. That which is desirable is not that the greatest possible number of children should be born into the world; the need is for more intelligent motherhood and fatherhood, and for better-born and better educated children.

Teddy Roosevelt with babies

Spoken over a century ago, Shaw’s remarks remain all too pertinent to conditions that still exist in many areas of the world in the twenty-first century. Clio notes that it was primarily through the efforts of organized motherhood that the conditions Shaw describes above were finally addressed. Standards for pure water, food, public sanitation, playgrounds, school safety, etc., all resulted from the public efforts of empowered American women (some of whom could already vote in their states but not in national elections) who were concerned for the future of their own families and those of their neighbors. We can all appreciate the lesson provided by this historical example: mothers taking action can (eventually) get results!

Sources: The longer texts by President Roosevelt and Dr. Anna Howard Shaw can be consulted in “Nationalism and ‘Race Suicide’ in the United States,” in Women, the Family, and Freedom: The Debate in Documents, vol. 2: 1880-1950, ed. Susan Groag Bell & Karen M. Offen (Stanford University Press), pp. 136-143. The original source references are provided there.

72 Hrs With Lebanese Artist Kiki Bokassa

2012-01-25T08:47:00.001-08:00

Mainstream media has painted Lebanon as a country wrangled in constant political instability. In April 2009, Lebanese artist Kiki Bokassa decided to challenge those negative stereotypes by projecting Lebanon as a country of art and culture.

While confined behind a glass curtain, Kiki painted for 72 consecutive hours -- without sleep -- before a live audience both via HD screens located outside the venue and on the Internet.

I had a chance to speak with Kiki about the project and here's what she had to say:

Why did you create the 72 Hrs project?

Because I and so many people I know have a voice.

72 Hrs was created gradually after someone asked me what I wished to have for my birthday. For 72 hours it was on every news, locally and internationally, yet it wasn’t a blast, a bomb, or a fight.

During the legislative election period, I wanted this event to cast shadow over all the media exposure that’s usually dedicated to elections. I wanted to be the mosquito in the room. I didn’t have any clear demands.

During the small press conference held days before 72Hrs, I mentioned how disappointed I am in the government for the lack of financial aid we as artists have, or sustainable programs, to help us sell our work to institutions.

What is the situation for artists in Lebanon?

Artists pay taxes when registered as freelancers, but do not get anything in return, not even social security or reductions over certain things. Art material has became so expensive that it's difficult for anyone to become an artist. With a few laws or policies applied for the benefit of artists, Lebanon could become on the top list of artistic and cultural tourism in the region.

In Europe, many artists occupy deserted buildings illegally. It’s time for us to start doing that. Otherwise many artists will not be able to afford a workshop, which could be an interesting site for a viewer or a tourist to visit.

What was the message you wanted to convey?

I enjoyed seeing the looks of passersby whenever I used a color that is politicized. As you may know, political parties hold even colors in Lebanon hostage. And this is the message. I claim the right to free those colors from politics and to set them free again like any color in the universe.

People tend to be judgmental and my intention through 72Hrs was surely to forget about the influence of political affiliations in our daily life. It is enough that we live under the threat of war and have to cope with that feeling daily.

This frustration is also an essential part of my inspiration, as sad as it may sound.

My proudest moment at the end was to come out alive, and having been able to control as much as possible my mind and body in order to create under very strict conditions, you have to have inner peace.

To view some of the amazing art produced during the event, check out Kiki's blog, SPF 50+, and to get a glimpse of some her other creations visit Art Slant.

Smaller than Before: The Politics of Post-Partum Bodies

2012-01-24T08:31:00.000-08:00

[Editor's Note: This is a guest post by Dr. Jessica Zucker,a licensed clinical psychologist in Los Angeles specializing in women's health with a focus on fertility, prenatal and postpartum adjustments, attachment, and transitions in motherhood. Learn more about Jessica at her website.

This story is part of a new, ongoing series of guest posts about motherhood. Visit IMOW's new online exhibition MAMA: Motherhood Around the Globe at mama.imow.org ]

Flickr/ huberson

A close friend of mine from graduate school was in town over the weekend, someone I hadn’t seen since I was mid-way through my pregnancy. As we briskly walked toward each other, arms outstretched, brimming with wild enthusiasm about our long overdue rendezvous, Amalia blurts out from across the toddler trafficked park, “Oh my God, look at you, you don’t even look like you had a baby! You’re smaller than you were before.”

I wasn’t sure how I felt as we hugged, in the midst of awkwardly digesting her jubilant albeit off the cuff comment about the apparent erasure of my pregnancy. The embrace was cut short as she gently pushed me back to scan every inch of my postpartum body, unable to contain her energized description of how “little” I look, how “tiny” I am – spilling with words she defines as every woman’s dream. Or more to the point, every woman’s goal.

I want to be marked, in some way, by pregnancy, by the birth of my child. This is not to say that I would have wanted to maintain all the weight gained during pregnancy, but I do feel the body as well as the mind/psyche/heart go through a series of metamorphoses as life is being nourished inside and outside of the body.

Women are constantly shamed for their shape. Prepartum, postpartum, and never-partum. All but the smallest sizes are viewed as less than, not driven enough to surveil every morsel of food ingested, not vigilant enough to carve out time for daily workouts. Even women I know who do embody the cultural ideal – trotting around in the smallest sizes the jean manufacturers are producing these days- even they don’t feel at home in their bodies.

The droning laundry list of things that women say about how they “got their bodies back” include and sadly are not limited to: “breastfeeding is definitely what made the baby weight fly off”, “I got the food delivery service straight away. I was determined to return to my pre-baby wardrobe as quickly as possible and that way I didn’t have to think about what I was eating, it was done for me”, “I started counting calories while in the hospital. I was surprised by how long it took for the weight to come off but I feel like it’s the only thing I can control right now so my focus is sharp”, “not even a moment goes into thinking about my food intake. I guess I lost it all while running after my rambunctious toddler. He never gives me a break.”

Amalia is freshly married, 38, ambivalent about having kids. As she blithely puts it as she considers raising a family, “I could take it or leave it.” The ubiquity of psychological disconnection and body disenchantment is illuminated in Amalia’s detailing of my presence. My physicality is noticed first. My size is experienced and discussed in relationship to banishing pregnancy. The absence of body change is asserted as an enviable compliment. Meanwhile, my darling toddler is resting on my hip and I look into his eyes knowing that he grew inside of me and together we altered the feel and shape of my body. And then I think to myself, “Why would we want to erase that?”

Amalia provoked me to reflect on hundreds of fragmented interactions I’ve had with women since my baby was born. Women who are mothers themselves, women dying to get pregnant, women who share their horror of giving birth, “getting fat”, “staying fat”, women who asked me how much weight I gained while pregnant, my own mother reflecting on her speedy loss of “baby weight” and curious about why mine wasn’t slipping off as quickly. The dynamics of women and what we unwittingly do to each other is devastating. Paralyzing. A cultural vestige all too pervasive.

And then of course we are inundated with endless magazine images of emaciated post-pregnancy “stars” who “got their bodies back instantly.” They pontificate about the various ways women must expunge maternity. The pride taken in shrinking one’s body at any cost is emblematic of a cultural obsession with women not being real women.

The intimacy I experienced with my body and my developing baby during pregnancy was perhaps the most compelling transformation I have ever known. It became, in a way, a metaphor for how I feel about parenthood—a striking awareness of loss of control, simultaneity of surrendering to change on a moment-to-moment basis while experiencing more joy and more fear than the heart can contain. Pregnancy and parenthood invoke an unprecedented heightening of anxiety—excruciating awareness of vulnerability, altering one’s perspective on the fragility of life, as well as a depth of love that redefines the concept. Why would we erase all of this complexity– the physical and psychological makings and markings of pregnancy and parenthood?

I am not necessarily idealizing the experience of pregnancy. I’m not saying women should necessarily enjoy gaining weight, being tattooed with stretch marks, or relish the postpartum belly jiggle. I am attempting to call attention to cultures calamitous requirement that women erase the life giving process.

As Amelia and I make our way through the throngs of sweaty and spirited toddlers and exit the park, she turns to me and reiterates, “You’re so lucky, you look exactly like you did before.” There’s a pregnant pause. And I say, “Actually, my body’s changed from having a baby, and that is why I’m lucky.”

Dr. Jessica Zucker is a clinical psychologist in Los Angeles specializing in women’s health with a focus on transitions in motherhood, perinatal and postpartum mood disorders, and early parent-child attachment. Dr. Zucker received graduate degrees from Harvard and New York University. Jessica is an award-winning writer and is a contributor to The Huffington Post and PBS This Emotional Life. Dr. Zucker is currently writing her first book about mother-daughter relationships and issues surrounding the body (Routledge). Jessica consults on various projects pertaining to the motherhood continuum. www.drjessicazucker.com

Lactivists Across the US Fight to Breastfeed in Public

2012-01-17T14:16:00.000-08:00

The Milk Truck of Pittsburgh (via Gizmodo)

Lactating mothers that feel breastfeeding is a public right seem to have been coming out of the woodworks and are more vocal than ever in recent days.

In August, a Utah woman blogged about a negative confrontation by Whole Foods staff after she had tried to feed her child there. One social media campaign led to another, and soon a “nurse-in,” or the lactating mother’s version of a “sit in,” was established at 20 stores across the country. Whole Foods has since issued a public apology.

And just last month, a woman shopping in a Texas Target location said employees harassed her after she had breastfed her screaming infant in a secluded corner of the store. This spurred more than 100 nurse-ins in at least 35 states; and after 250 or more national demonstrations, Target Corporation issued a statement welcoming breastfeeding. Especially in the fitting rooms: “…even if others are waiting to use the fitting rooms,” claimed the apologetic memo.

They call themselves “lactivists,” or, more memorably, “NIP (Nursing in Public),” and, in case you haven’t caught them at a big box chain or major grocer near you, you may soon find them on wheels.

At least in theory, that is. An ice cream truck with a giant erect breast on its roof has been roaming the streets of Pittsburgh, PA as a safe haven for the lactating mother in need. Jill Miller, an art instructor at Carnegie Mellon, designed what’s known as the “Milk Truck” to come to the rescue of mothers wishing to nurse whenever they feel shunned publicly. The Truck, while not exactly practical for every breastfeeding mom in Pittsburgh, was part of the Andy Warhol Museum’s 2011 Biennial exhibit, which ended January 8.

As symbolic as the Milk Truck may be, the community support was overwhelming: Miller’s kickstarter campaign to launch the truck racked in more than $15,000 to start up, and the Pittsburgh City Council named Sept. 13 "Milk Truck Day."

A city proclamation declared: "Whereas, the Milk Truck…believes babies should be able to eat anywhere and everywhere; and … be it further resolved."

On a national scale, the Surgeon General issued out a call to action to support breastfeeding in January of last year. Surgeon General Regina M. Benjamin said: "Many barriers exist for mothers who want to breastfeed. They shouldn’t have to go it alone."

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that while 75% of US babies start out breastfeeding, only 13% are exclusively breastfed at the end of 6 months. According to the call to action, breastfeeding protects babies from infections and illnesses like diarrhea, ear infections, and pneumonia. Breastfed babies are also less likely to develop asthma, and those who are breastfed for six months are less likely to become obese. Mothers themselves who breastfeed have a decreased risk of breast and ovarian cancers.

It wasn’t until 1999 that a US federal law was enacted to specifically address mothers wishing to breastfeed in public, but it only protects women wishing to feed in a federal building or a federal property. There are no stipulations for private organizations and properties that include retail stores and restaurants, although some states are passing laws for further protection.

In Canada, a 1989 Supreme Court case held that, since pregnancy was a condition unique to women, discrimination against women on the basis of pregnancy is a form of sex discrimination.

The most recent battleground for public breastfeeding? The streets of Sesame. That’s right, one of the nation’s most beloved children’s shows has now been targeted for failing to support breastfeeding women. So far, more than 30,000 people have signed a petition to bring breastfeeding back to Sesame Street.

Have women ever felt safe breastfeeding their babies in public? And if not, are these “lactivists” just the beginning of a new feminist movement?

The Artist, Top Golden Globe Winner

2012-01-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, I finally watched The Artist, and was fascinated by the movie's themes; in particular, The Great Depression and the increasingly unstable nature of human "value" in modern culture. Set amidst the early 20th century box office shift to "talkies," the film examines the familiar romantic territory that characterized early cinematic narratives -- plaintive looks, ecstatic eye contact at unexpected moments -- overall, the film successfully recreates the optimism that Americans so desperately needed by the late-1920s.

Director Michel Hazanavicius must have aimed to recall a specific moment in American history, but this time may be repeating itself. His film is a nod, undoubtedly, to a new way of cultural conditioning, yet one that had been building up for years and continues. From the bank bail outs to the ongoing Occupying, money remains forefront in our minds. From unemployment rates to who we consider our presidential hopefuls, wealth and (self) image can evoke strong emotions and outcomes -- both then and now.

As my friends and I sat and watched the drama unfold, we secretly hoped that the male protagonist, George Valentin (Jean Dujardin), would finally "forgive" the female lead, Peppy Miller (Berenice Bejo), for her powerful position -- she rose to fame as his own career was fanning out. This was the only aspect of the film that I hoped would be more progressive. "Please don't let it become a film noir that warns that all women are evil," I thought to myself. (While fun to watch for their melodramatic content, we don't need to revamp that message!)

Without giving the end away, I can honestly say that The Artist's power dynamic is resolved in a satisfying way. In fact, I would say it's version of a silent film, and that's good. In addition, don't be scared away by its experimental silent film format -- it's a treat to watch, and there's just enough sound (including a charming ending note by George) to hold your attention.

As we exited the theater, my friend looked at me and sighed in relief. Without saying too much, we both agreed that right now is a great time for a happy ending. I'll even go a step further and say that this welcome story isn't "slight" by any means, as described previously in Slate magazine. Yes, it's a movie nerd's fantasy, complete with obvious nostalgic film references, but it's also progressive for the extremely vocal co-star standing up for her rights in the opening scene, the self-made and likeable female star that Bejo brings to life, and for the overt warning to avoid clinging to status symbols in modern society, especially because often the public is not right.

Ultimately, the film critiques social knee-jerk reactions, such as "trending," traditional pride in gender roles, and the Warholian nightmare that is celebritydom. Taking a few steps back isn't always pretty, yet Hazanavicius manages to make it so.

Women Cloth Dyers of Mali

2011-12-28T09:55:00.001-08:00

Image credit

The Republic of Mali in Western Africa, with a population of roughly 14.5 million, is bordered by Algeria on the north, Burkina Faso and Côte d'Ivoire to the south, Niger on the east, Senegal and Mauritania to the west and Guinea on the southwest.

Internationally, Mali has established a reputation of being an exporter of high-quality fiber. However, despite being Africa's second largest cotton fiber producer (Egypt is the first), globalization and competition with players like China, the United States, Pakistan, India and Uzbekistan has made it difficult for the country to capitalize on its natural wealth both locally and internationally.

As a land-locked country, these obstacles are furthered complicated due to insecure roads, ports, and an inefficient rail system, all of which create high prices for air freight because it is the only means for delivering products.

Carving a Niche with Tradition

Mali's rich textile and leather heritage includes spinning and hand-weaving as well as dyeing, garment design, and tailoring along with embroidery.

In the early 1970's, a group of Malian women dyers re-ignited the hand-dyed cloth industry throughout West Africa with innovative designs and use of vibrant colors.

Tapping into their creative spirit and inspired by beauty and economic survival, these self-empowered African women turned traditional hand-dyed bazin, which is an imported polished cotton, into a lucrative economy.

Bamako Chic: Threads of Power, Color, and Culture

In 2010, anthropologist Maxine Downs and filmmaker Maureen Gosling teamed up to produce Bamako Chic. The film follows the daily lives of several Malian women who have provided a sustainable source of asset building for their households by taking advantage of the "world chic" trends of globalization.

Their artistry and keen entrepreneurial skills allowed these women to take full advantage of micro-programs that were introduced to the country in the mid-1980's.

By highlighting the collective and personal triumphs of Africans, this film also challenges international stereotypes of a continent that's underdeveloped, politically unstable, and plagued with health disparities and famine.

Technically, if the stringent policies of international lenders like the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) were to halt colonial policies that make it difficult for local industries and entrepreneurs to flourish then it is highly likely issues of poverty for many colonized countries would start to evaporate.

Bjork's "Biophilia" Captures the Curious Wonders of Nature

2011-12-28T08:39:00.000-08:00

Artwork for Biophilia. Image via Bjork's Facebook page

Bjork's latest album Biophilia is a celebration of nature's wondrous capacity to create, destroy, evolve, and adapt. At a time when the reality of life on planet earth is grim--the increasingly dramatic effects of climate change, food shortages in developing countries, destruction of wildlife habitats--Biophilia reminds us there is still much to appreciate about our planet, and sings about earth and its ecosystems with whimsy and wonder. The song 'Crystalline' is about crystals growing beneath the earth's surface, and invites the audience to "listen how they grow."

'Mutual Core' takes a more somber tone, as Bjork compares the movement of the planet's tectonic plates (an earthquake) to shifting one's sense of self in order to be compatible with a lover: "You gave it all/ tried to match continents to a seasonal shift"

On her website, The Icelandic artist describes Biophilia as "the love for nature in all her manifestations, from the tiniest organism, to the greatest red giant floating in the farthest realm of the universe. With Biophilia comes a restless curiosity, an urge to investigate and discover the illusive places where we meet nature."
She goes on to describe the album as the unification of nature, music, and technology.

The sound of Biophilia is diverse, ranging from the delicate plucking of harp strings to up-tempo electronica with a thumping bassline. The album's format also breaks new ground in music and technology with its own suite of apps compatible with the iPhone and iPad. New York Times video game critic Seth Seth Schiesel writes, "The real magic happens when you press "play." That doesn't tell the machine to play a song; it means it's time for you to play the song. Bjork and her team have created a small visual toolbox for each track. A few, like "Crystalline," play much like a simple video game...you tilt and swivel the iPad to add colorful crystals to a glowing agglomeration as you zoom along neon tunnels."

Here's a video showing how the Moon app can be used:

Biophilia is an artistic celebration of the natural world, and by bringing technology into the concept, Bjork touches on something deeper: technological innovation can be used not only to deepen our appreciation for nature, but also to protect and preserve it. Biophilia points (however subtly) in the direction of a day when human progress will mean working with nature rather than fighting against it. An amazing next step would be linking the app suite to information (maybe from other science and environmental apps?) about earth's natural wonders to increase environmental awareness and knowledge.

Aside from being a treat to listen to, Biophilia is an album that builds curiosity, and it left me wanting to know more.

Be Your Own Critic: Andrea Fraser & Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz

2011-12-20T01:05:00.000-08:00

Recently, I was reading an article in ARTnews about the burgeoning trend in art circles that has been described as "poking fun at art-world inequities." Carolina A. Miranda pointed to the practice as a potentially enlightening process for both the artist and viewer, and cited Joe Sola. Sola's philosophy is multidisciplinary and borrows heavily from film history in order to animate his own perspective as a working artist. Through video, drawing, performance--even stuntman antics--his work is one of the many in a larger pool of cage rattlers. What is the perceived cage? You guessed it--the high art realm, which includes galleries, critiques, and even the less formal studio visit.

It's been done before (about twentysomething years ago) by Andrea Fraser, the New York-based artist who famously humped the interior of a museum. It's not any more graceful than it sounds, and this is the intention--as Frieze's Melissa Gronlund aptly summarized her contribution to a more honest art dialogue:

Andrea Fraser’s performances add gender and sexual dimensions to the critique of art institutions carried out by Hans Haacke, Daniel Buren, Carl Andre and others. Fraser’s approach is usually to assume the role of a museum volunteer or invited artist and then shift her position during the course of her performance to one of keen critic.

Gronlund proceeded to mention that Fraser's writings about high art society is less than "heartening" (and isn't this what we seek when we seek art out?) but do not despair. This can indeed induce what I'd say are tough art historical times. I mean, is EVERYTHING about money? At these moments, it is achingly common to resent the facile nature of commodification and the fading promise of social mobility within such an enclosed, precious space.

But don't worry--the good news is that it's not a real space. It's imaginary. Yes, everyone, it's all in our minds, which is the reason that Conceptual Art came to be. By participating, and carrying your experience away from institutions (galleries, museums, universities), the exchange is distorted and ultimately enriched. Artists are becoming more brave by the second, and nothing is off limits for examination. For example, it wasn't always common to use horror films as inspiration for performance art.

The ARTnews article mentioned a remarkably funny and intelligent young artist, Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz. Her accessible version of an Art History lecture provides an additional version of a critical voice for the public. By means of a YouTube channel--a revolutionary step in inviting audiences to actively participate in creative dialogues--her character appears to be the stereotypical uneducated homegirl but quickly dismantles such a flimsy identity. Instead, she's the girl that might be sitting next to you in class or exhibiting at a gallery nearby. Watch this video, titled Critics.

Wanda Raimundi-Ortiz stood out to me as I read about the new generation of whistleblowers and court jesters. In a tongue-in-cheek gesture to the increasingly sterile language used to explain art to "the public," Raimundi-Ortiz's YouTube character, a Puerto-Rican New Yorker Chuleta, introduces herself as an intellectual ally who wished nothing more than to "bridge the gap." This reminded me of the jovial and relaxed conversations that truly display a love for art, and more importantly, a desire to communicate to others. Raimundi-Ortiz's series, "Ask Chuleta," offers what ARTnews identified as an informative resource in the 21st century. I love that she said, "Google Donald Judd" so much!

Carolina A. Miranda made sure to remind ARTnews readers of an important quality that cuts through any potential socioeconomic boundary that we might experience in pursuing our goals:

Ultimately, many of these works are steeped in a profound appreciation of art—even as they poke fun of it.

Or as Chuleta says, "I'mma school myself." What Conceptual Art started years ago is this: we don't always visit art works to blankly admire and escape reality. At the most profound moments, we can imagine ourselves making it and speaking on its behalf, no matter where we come from.

CLIO TALKS BACK: The Christ Child and his Mother Mary

2011-12-19T09:33:00.000-08:00

A 6^th century mosaic featuring Mary, Mother of Jesus, in the church in Ravenna

In the Christian world, the most important and festive holiday – Christmas - celebrates the birth of Jesus, the Christ child. His coming was foretold by the Jewish prophets, and his story and the founding of the Christian religion is well-known. Known as the “Son of God,”his mission was no less than to redeem humanity from sin.

His mother Mary also plays an important though curious role in the story of developing Christianity. As a virgin, conceiving “miraculously” thanks to God’s intervention, giving birth, it is told, in a manger in Bethlehem because there was no room in the Inn; fleeing to Egypt with Joseph and the baby to escape the child-murdering wrath of Herod the King, raising Jesus to manhood, and mourning his death. Celebrated in art throughout the ages, through painting and sculpture, we actually know very little about Mary the mother. We do know, though, that even though Mary is not included in the Christian trinity (Father, Son, and Holy Ghost), she is a central, highly attractive – even popular – figure in the religion as it spread across Europe and throughout the world, displacing but also merging with local pagan dieties.

One story has it that she died in Ephesus, where her identity as a sacred mother began to merge with that of Demeter or Artemis, the pagan goddess of fertility whose cult was celebrated there. Incarnated and worshipped variously throughout the centuries as the Black Madonna (in the Mediterranean regions), as Notre Dame or Our Lady (in France and throughout Europe), she became the object of a cult which became very important to women, especially those who were experiencing problems in conceiving a child or who were wracked by sorrow. Mary took on many aspects of the Great Goddess of pre-Christian antiquity and developed a huge following which continues today.

Michelangelo’s Pieta

In the mid-nineteenth century, the newly-elected pope, Pius IX, following his flight from Rome and the revolutionaries, drafted the encyclical letter Ubi Primum, in which he called on Roman Catholic bishops to support his intention of honoring the Virgin Mary, elevating her status in the Church by proclaiing her to be free of (sexual) sin thanks to the exceptional privilege of her Immaculate Conception (i.e. being conceived by her mother Anne without a sexual act). The debate over Mary’s purity had occupied Christian theologians since medieval times but had never received formal endorsement from the Church. It seemes more than coinciddental that Piou IX provoked this move only when the Church was suffering from the tumult of revolution – and secular disenchantment – and when the specter of war stalked the Italian peninsula and the rest of Europe and men were falling away from the Church. What an extraordinary coincidence that the Pope should attempt to rally support by invoking a principle of female purity to buttress the Church in its hour of need! SSome six hundred and twenty bishops responded to the encyclical, nearly all in the affirmative, and in December 1854, back in Rome, Puis IX proclaimed the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. Opponents, such as Johannes Ronge, who objected to popery in general, insisted in 1849 that what needed celebrating was not some supernatural idea of Mary, but rather “the majesty and dignity of womanliness” and the “redeeming power of love” in humanity. The “sanctifying image of Mary,” he insisted, should be found “only in humanity.” He denied “voicing so-called theories of emancipation” but rather “seeking the inner liberation and elevation of the female sex through a lofty ethical principle.” He called on German women to embody this idea and look to the needs of the oppressed classes and especially the plight of children.

Further reading and sources:

The papal encyclical Ubi Primum and the response of Johannes Ronge, in Women, the Family, and Freedom, ed. Susan Groag Bell & Karen Offen (1983), vol. 1, documents 79 & 80. Some of the above text is taken from the headnote to these documents.

Marina Warner, Alone of all her sex: The Myth and the Cult of the Virgin Mary (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1976).

Wikipedia has an excellent article on Mary, with many references and illustrations, at the following URL:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_(mother_of_Jesus).

What Razan Ghazzawi Can Teach Us about Taking Action

2011-12-14T11:48:00.001-08:00

Razan during The 3rd Arab Bloggers Meeting Oct. 2011, in Tunis. (Photo: Flickr - Ibtihel Zaatouri)

If you haven't heard the story yet, Razan Ghazzawi is the latest among a dozen bloggers, activists, and journalists who have been detained since the nine month uprising calling for the ousting of President Bashar Assad erupted in March.

Ghazzawi was detained on Dec. 4 at the Jordanian border by Syrian immigration as she tried to cross into Jordan to attend a conference on press freedom in the Arab world. Currently, she is being held in Adra prison and faces a potential 3- to -15-year prison sentence.

On Monday, Syrian authorities charged Ghazzawi with membership to a secret organisation, which aims to change the economic and social status of the state, conveying within Syria false news that could debilitate the morale of the nation and weakening national sentiment, violating Article 335 of the Syrian penal code -- banning participation in a riotous demonstration -- and inciting sectarian strife.

Who is Razan?
Razan, 31, is a blogger, feminist and human rights activist who has campaigned for the release of political prisoners and documented human rights abuses.

Prominent Egyptian blogger Zeinobia praises Razan's revolutionary spirit:

Razan has been active and outspoken when it comes to injustice. She is among a few Syrian bloggers that blog with her real name. She is U.S. born yet she is an Arab leftist nationalist. I think Razan Ghazzawi is the second female Syrian blogger to be arrested after Tal Malhoi.

I remember once, during the revolution in Egypt, Razan tweeted about how she and her family were glued in front of the TV every afternoon till late night watching Tahrir square in those 18 days and how she cried when Mubarak was ousted. Razan is another Syrian, among thousands of Syrians, detained for no reason except they want freedom and democracy.

Since 2009, Razan has been maintaining Razaniyyat where she blogs, mainly in English, about human rights, women's and gay rights, as well as Arab and Syrian affairs. She is also the media coordinator for the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression.

Syrian Uprising
On Wednesday, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, urged the United Nations (UN) Security Council to refer Syria to the International Criminal Court (ICC) for crimes against humanity. The call comes as the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) prepares to release a report also calling for Syria's referral to the ICC.

According to recent UN statistics, the brutal crackdown has left more than five thousand dead while thousands more continue to languish in prison. Today alone, violence across Syria has killed at least twenty-five people and the death toll is rising by the minute.

Time to Take Action
Since Razan's arrest, more than four thousand people have joined the Facebook campaign Free Syrian Blogger & Activist Razan Ghazzawi and started an online petition to demand intervention by the Arab League and the US government.

Twitter users have also launched the hashtag #FreeRazan to show solidarity.

As you can see, Razan was a person of action. So here's a list of ways that you can also take action:

Write an email or send a fax to your local politician, Foreign Minister, members of parliament of congress. Use the internet to find their contact details or see this list of emails. Razan is an American Citizen – here is a list of US Embassies to contact demanding they take urgent action.
Use your profile photo to draw attention to Razan’s arrest and the plight of all prisoners in Syria via Twibbon or you can use this image, or make your own.
Use the tag #FreeRazan to share links, videos, news from #Syria – keep attention levels UP, don’t let this important news be overpowered by other stories and fade from view.
Post news and links to FaceBook, blog, forums, and in comments on videos and news posts about Syria. If you write, please write about this issue.
Schedule tweets for when you can’t be online – use Dlvr IT for feeds or Buffer for individual tweets. Also, Razan’s twitter account is currently being managed by her friends and supporters. Follow her if you’re not already @RedRazan for important updates.
Join the Free Razan FaceBook page and share the page with all your friends.

If you have more ideas, please share them here.

The Journey of "Miss Representation"

2011-12-14T11:47:00.000-08:00

[Editor's Note: This post was written by Jennifer Siebel Newsom, founder and CEO of MissRepresentation.org; writer, director, and producer of Miss Representation; and honorary IMOW board member.]

Carol Jenkins of Women's Media Center (left) and Jennifer Siebel Newsom (Courtesy MissRepresentation)

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

As we approach the end of the year, I want to take this time to reflect on just how amazing 2011 has really been.

At this time a year ago we had just found out my film Miss Representation was accepted into the Sundance Film Festival, and that I was pregnant with my second child - a son. As you can imagine, we were all filled with much excitement, but also anxiety.

I didn’t really anticipate the kind of reaction the film would receive, or how my life would change within the next few months. But once I saw the lines outside Miss Representation screenings at Sundance, heard the audiences cheer, and Oprah Winfrey approached us to purchase the broadcast rights, I knew we were at the beginning of something bigger than just a documentary.

Fast forward to October and we had assembled a small full-time team, filed for non-profit status as MissRepresentation.org, and were gearing up for our US national broadcast premiere on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. We were also in the midst of igniting an international social action movement online – with our trailers going viral across the world, all the while sparking thousands of small actions through a brand new website.

The Miss Representation team

We watched in amazement as 400,000 people viewed a trailer in the span of a week, with hundreds of thousands more watching trailers on YouTube and Facebook in the days leading up to the TV premiere. Word spread to the major news outlets, and soon we were being mentioned everywhere from Vogue to Entertainment Weekly.

Over 1.3 million people ended up seeing Miss Representation on OWN in October, but countless more have been touched by the movement. And this has been spearheaded by the passion and commitment of our supporters. Individuals like yourself who have been moved by the trailer or the film, and have then taken it into their own hands to do something about it.

So many of you are calling out companies, writing letters or starting petitions against sexism and disrespect towards women in your local communities. Hundreds of independent blogs have been written about Miss Representation. Hundreds of thousands have shared content on Facebook, liked a post or sent a tweet out using #MissRep.

More than the numbers though, it’s the individual stories of action which are especially poignant. From the mother in New York who successfully lobbied Mayor Bloomberg to have a pornographic advertisement removed from her child’s bus stop, to the high school youth who started a ‘MissRep’ club to discuss sexism in the media with her classmates, we have been reminded again and again of the power of one individual having courage and using her or his voice to stand up to injustice.

Because of all your efforts, we are even more inspired to continue the work we started with Miss Representation a year ago.

The coming months promise exciting opportunities for this campaign to expand and continue to shift the cultural mindset around gender. In addition to continuing to partner with leading non-profits like the International Museum of Women, we will be launching new campaigns in 2012 to give women and girls further tools to combat sexism.

We will spread our Miss Representation educational curriculum - which is bringing a much needed gender focus to media literacy classes - to thousands of educational institutions across North America. We will host call-to-action town halls with government, business and community leaders as well as work with industry executives to improve the portrayal of women and girls in the media. We are actively supporting the Girl Scout’s Healthy Media Commission and are working with the private sector to establish best practices. And we will begin development on new films to expand on the message of Miss Representation. We’re not slowing down until sexism is eradicated and all women are allowed to realize their full potential. And we need your help!

Yet before we push ahead, it’s important that we pause to celebrate all that has been accomplished already. Because of this movement, more people are aware of the inequalities present in American media and leadership. More women feel empowered to focus on their careers and more girls feel capable to pursue their biggest dreams. Because of this movement, there are more men and women out there willing to challenge the status quo.

The movement really comes down to you. By taking the pledge at misrepresentation.org, you are exemplifying the very change we wish to see in the world.

From the bottom of my heart I want to thank everyone who has joined us thus far. In a few weeks, as the New Year approaches, many of us will make resolutions for what we’d like to be or see in 2012. For me, this year’s resolution is easy: I will not stop. I will do everything in my power to continue to make a difference for women and girls.

Will you join me?

A Changing Mindset on Childbirth in Western Africa

2011-12-08T16:33:00.000-08:00

Americans are a bit fascinated with polygamy. Big Love, Sister Wives – it seems men with multiple spouses are getting quite the media foothold in the United States.

In Senegal, polygamy is a daily, accepted reality. But ask a Senegalese person why it’s so commonly practiced here, and the most common answer you’ll receive is that it’s done for one primary reason: for procreation.

Children are revered here in West Africa. Having a huge brood is smiled upon, regardless of the resources one has to provide for a plethora of offspring. If there isn’t enough food to go around, extended family members have no problem pitching in. In general, the more kids, the better.

That’s why I’m curious to see how Senegalese president Abdoulaye Wade’s recent statements on family planning will resonate – if at all – with the public.

“We cannot impose on our people contraceptive methods, but should explain to convince them that they are responsible for the number of children they give birth to in terms of providing them with quality education, health, shelter and all the necessary basic needs in life,” President Wade said at a recent International Conference on Family Planning in Dakar.

My outsider’s viewpoint is that it’s going to take much more than just education and availability of contraceptives for family planning in Senegal to change or happen at all. It’s going to take a true cultural and mental shift, especially in rural places far outside the capital city.

The United Nations is determined to make it happen, though. The U.N.’s Population Fund is getting a grant-funded boost that will give underprivileged women in Africa contraceptive implants. The U.N. estimates the project will help prevent some two million unwanted pregnancies. But in Senegal, the pregnancies often aren’t unwanted (and despite the poverty, the quality of life isn’t nearly as bad here as in other African nations).

Do you think family-planning initiatives will have success in Africa? Why or why not?

CLIO TALKS BACK: Eleanor Rathbone and the Endowment of Motherhood in Britain

2011-12-07T12:09:00.000-08:00

From 1908 on Eleanor Rathbone (1872-1946) served on the Liverpool City Council in England and later became one of the first women to be elected to the British Parliament. Throughout her life she concerned herself with the plight of the disadvantaged – be they British children, Indian women, African victims of female circumcision rites, or refugees from Nazi Germany. She clearly understood how dependent women had become in British society as well as elsewhere.

Rathbone opposed the idea of a “family wage” paid to employed men, advocating instead a plan for family allowances whereby the husband’s employer, or in case of his unemployment, the state, would pay a separate allowance for each child directly to his wife. By this means she hoped to enhance the oppressed and narrow lives of working-class wives and mothers. The notion that wives and children were necessarily men’s dependents seemed, to her, demeaning.

Eleanor Rathbone viewed this economic approach to empowering mothers as part of a “New Feminism,” by which she meant dealing with women’s needs in women’s terms. In 1924 she elaborated her views in a widely-read book, The Disinherited Family, in which she argued that the time had come to focus on the problems of women in the family. Not surprisingly, it was her controversial insistence that the family allowance be paid to the wife/mother that stirred up the most resistance.

Opponents of the plan included Millicent Garrett Fawcett, Rathbone’s predecessor as head of the National Union of Woman’s Suffrage Societies. Fawcett, herself an economic thinker, feared that such payments to the wife and mother would undermine the sense of responsibility of men – husbands and fathers – by degrading their hallowed role as economic providers. This, she feared, would destroy rather than stabilize the family. Eleanor Rathbone strongly disagreed.

In 1925 Rathbone responded to Fawcett’s concerns by rolling out a visionary agenda in which she suggested that merely clearing away the old laws or seeking equal pay for equal work did not go far enough. Finally the time had some, she argued, to “demand what we want for women, not because it is what men have got, but because it is what women need to fulfil the potentialities of their own natures and to adjust themselves to the circumstances of their own lives.” This, she claimed, was the agenda of the “New Feminism.”

Rathbone’s plan was ultimately incorporated into a “Family Endowment Act” by the British Labour Government in 1945, immediately after the end of the Second World War.

Clio wants to know what you think about the notion of employer-allocated or state-allocated family allowances as a means of empowering mothers. Is this still an attractive solution for women today? Your comments are, of course, welcome.

Sources:

1. Women, the Family, and Freedom: The Debate in Documents, vol. 2 (1880-1950), documents 88-91: Family Endowment and the “New Feminism.”
2. Susan Pedersen, Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience (Yale University Press).

CLIO TALKS BACK: Why did so many young Irish women leave Ireland?

2011-12-02T08:06:00.000-08:00

Early Irish Immigrants

In the years 1885-1920 nearly 700,000 mostly single women under the age of 24 left family farms in Ireland to seek a better life in the cities of North America. They travelled by themselves across the Atlantic Ocean. No family members – no fathers, mothers, husbands or brothers accompanied them. Single women emigrants from Ireland in these years outnumbered male emigrants – exceptional among European migrants to the New World.

Why did so many young Irish women emigrate? In those years of great deprivation following the famine years when Ireland’s potato crops collapsed, they simply sought a better life, one which would – according to Janet Nolan – allow them to reclaim their earlier status, to earn their keep, to marry as they chose, and – most of all – to create lives free of severe hardship. Many (well over two-thirds) first sought employment as domestic servants in the cities of the eastern United States. They generally married after a few years and often bore large numbers of children. Upwardly mobile, many of the offspring of the families these young women founded, obtained an education and became wildly successful by the standards of the land their mothers had abandoned.

What is striking in Nolan’s account of this emigration in her book, “Ourselves Alone,” was that, very unusual for the times, the young women’s travel was mostly financed by female relatives. Networks of older women helping younger women. Older women sending back money to help their little sisters and nieces emigrate as they had. In Nolan’s words (p. 95),“They were the first generation of Irish women to realize fully their own social and economic modernization as women.”

Then, when the emigrant women were settled in their new country, many of them sent money home to assist those who had remained behind – for example, to purchase a horse to replace the one that had died. Ironically, “the most expendable group in post-Famine Ireland – dependent daughters and sisters – became the saviors of a society that could not have remained intact save by their emigration and their remittances” (p. 71).

Some of these emigrant women and their daughters became prominent labor organizers in the U.S. Nolan names Kate Mullany, organizer of the laundry workers in Troy, New York; Leonora Barry, head of the women’s work committee for the Knights of Labor; Mary Kenny O’Sullivan, of the A. F. L. [American Federation of Labor]; Leonora O’Reilly, of the Women’s Trade Union League; and Mother Jones (Mary Harris Jones) and Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, respectively founder and leader of the Industrial Workers of the World. All these women activists supported equal pay for equal work and the rights of laboring women.

Clio celebrates the courage and initiative of these thousands of Irish emigrant women to bettering their condition by “packing up and leaving,” to create new lives in a new country.

Source: Janet Ann Nolan, Ourselves Alone: Women’s Emigration From Ireland, 1885-1920 (University of Kentucky Press, 1989).

Virginity, Teen Pregnancy, and Scholarship

2011-11-30T12:05:00.000-08:00

School girls in Sierra Leone

Bo, Sierra Leone's second largest city has started a new scholarship program to keep girls in school. The only catch...they must remain virgins through their educational career to keep the scholarship. City councilman Mathew Margao said the scholarship will ensure that “80 percent of school going girls keep their virginity until they finish their educational life”. Margao added that, “the council will hire female medical personnel who would prove the authenticity of the girls virginity”. The council started the scholarship in response to a reported rise in teenage pregnancy from the Ministry of Gender and Social Welfare. There were 500 reported secondary school pregnancies in Kailahun a town to the east of Bo.

Pregnant teens in Sierra Leone face greater risks at childbirth. They accounted for 40 percent of all maternal deaths in 2008. Family planning experts say that sex education and contraceptive use do more to reduce unplanned pregnancies amongst teens. But in Sierra Leone where 70 percent of pregnant teens are already married one might argue that these pregnancies are planned. Even the youngest teens in Sierra Leone sometimes look forward to becoming mothers. They are unaware of the risks they might face during childbirth or the possible neonatal affects on the baby. Those teenage moms who do survive the ordeal of losing a baby are sometimes eager to try again. Our culture tells us that losing a baby at birth is either God’s will or caused by witchcraft.

Many parents sometimes encourage older, wealthier suitors for their teenage daughters. This is not to say that young girls don’t date boys their own age. But many young women , especially from low income single parent households are encouraged to find men who will provide for them financially.

While the idea that the government in Bo believes it lawful to violate the bodies of young women with its virgin scholarship is problematic, the real question of how to effectively combat teen pregnancy in Sierra Leone still remains.

When the powers that be conceived 'free healthcare for expecting mothers and children under 5', it was simply to fight the nation's discouraging maternal mortality rates. It was not a holistic women’s reproductive health policy to address all aspects of women’s health. Sierra Leone’s private and public health systems have yet to adequately address the issue of teenage pregnancy so politicians in places like Bo have to find their own solutions.

The most ostentatious efforts to target teenage pregnancy by NGOs or the Ministry of Health are limited to outdated bill boards warning girls to refrain from getting pregnant least they become drop outs with no opportunities. The health NGOs and the public health system refuse to acknowledge that teenage girls in Sierra Leone will discover and experiment with their sexuality much like girls all over the world. Teenage girls in Sierra Leone will have sex with boys their age and with men much older than they are. Some will do so of their own free will while others will be seduced by wealth, status, etc.

Teenagers need to be properly educated and counseled about the consequences of being sexually active in a modern world. They need to have access to contraceptives. I once interviewed a young woman in Freetown who said she didn’t use condoms because she was afraid it would get stuck in her stomach. Who is going to teach her otherwise? Politicians like councilman Margao?

Egypt's Nude Revolutionary

2011-11-30T11:03:00.000-08:00

Twenty year old Egyptian blogger Magda Aliaa el-Mahdy rose to stardom after delivering a stick of dynamite via her blog, 'A Rebel's Diary', in what she described as being in the spirit of the revolution.

Who is Aliaa? Nowadays she's known as the Nude Revolutionary and the dynamite was - you guessed it - a nude photo of herself online, which sparked outrage from both conservatives and liberals in Egypt alike. Here's her take on why she took such controversial measures:

"Put on trial the artists' models who posed nude for art schools until the early 70s, hide the art books and destroy the nude statues of antiquity, then undress and stand before a mirror and burn your bodies that you despise to forever rid yourselves of your sexual hangups before you direct your humiliation and chauvinism and dare to try to deny me my freedom of expression".

The North African country, with a population of roughly eighty-five million, is a largely conservative society.

Earlier this year, inspired by the wave of uprisings that struck the region following Tunisia's ability to send their long-time dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali packing, Egyptians from all social and political classes took to the streets with a unified dream of doing away with a system that had outlived its stay.

As punishment, Egypt's Supreme Council of Armed Forces (SCAF) subjected women to humiliating 'virginity tests', which entailed having a soldier insert two fingers into their croch. Once again, as discontent returned to Tahrir earlier this month, women's bodies were targeted.

Women's rights advocates like award-winning Egyptian writer Mona Eltahawy believes that El Mahdy's act not highlights how in times of extreme repression sex and nakedness becomes the only weapon of political repression for women. In a recent article in the Guardian, she argues:

When sexual assault parades as a test of the "honour" of virginity, then posing in your parents' home in nothing but stockings, red shoes and a red hair clip is an attack towards all patriarchs out there.

While Mahdy's act has been hashtagged (#NudePhotoRevolutionary) and her name tweeted and Facebooked endlessly, others did not receive such attention. Samira Ibrahim, the only one of the women subjected to "virginity tests" who is taking the military to court for sexual assault, has neither a dedicated hashtag nor notoriety. Another woman, Salwa el-Husseini, was the first to reveal what the military did to them, but news reports have said she can't raise a lawsuit because she doesn't have identification papers.

Not only did el-Husseini speak out, she courageously agreed to be filmed at a session of testimonies on military abuses. Again, hardly anyone knows her name, her recorded testimony isn't racking up page views, and she was called a liar and vilified for speaking out. Both women have vehemently maintained they were virgins.

If "good girls" in headscarves who kept their legs together only to be violated by the military speak out and no one listens, what's the message being sent?

Whether or not El Mahdy's act was revolutionary or not it has definitely sparked a debate as to how far women should go in pushing the boundaries in their fight for a more inclusive society.

One question that probably pops in your head is: had she been a man, would the publics reaction have been different?

Critics argue that the embattled blogger not only insulted revolution but has tarnished the uprisings image.

“#nudephotorevolutionary was the most daring conflicting act I’ve seen for a long time but was also the worst thing that happened to the liberal movement in Egypt,” Kamel continued. According to Kamel, he feels that her actions have caused more harm than good. Her actions have done “nothing but stir a debate and allow the conservatives to have one more reason to call for an Islamic state and blame liberals and seculars for this. You will probably see one of them saying this is how all women will act if Egypt isn’t saved by an Islamic leader."

In the aftermath of her public expression, El Mahdy has been slapped with a lawsuit as the Coalition of Islamic law graduates in Egypt filed a case against the blogger and her boyfriend, Kareem Amer who also appears nude on the site, for 'violating morals, inciting indecency and insulating Islam'.

In her defense, supporters have established a Facebook page in which they vow to also get butt naked in an act of self-expression. According to Eltahawy, El Mahdy's nudity was a way of extinguishing the 'dictators of our mind'.

Perhaps, but is this the way to do it?

I remember when I was still living on the streets and working as a delivery person in New York City while cleaning houses on the side. The delivery service was a family run business and in the midst of being delighted to finally have someone pay me for once, I didn't even consider that the $20 a day for over eight hours of work was meager. Then a good friend C told me to quit that job and go art model.

I thought she had lost her mind. Now, it's not like you think. It actually entailed going around to art schools and posing.

To convince me she said, "once you drop the clothes, it's done and you got a new career."

The idea didn't sound bad to me, especially after discovering that NYU paid a hefty $18 per hour and most classes were four hours long. The major feat was challenging a lot of societal mishaps in the process but eventually I saw this as a great way to rekindle the artist in me, revolutionize my thinking and love my body.

So, I did it. After some time I was the most sought after model circulating the art scene and I felt empowered, liberated and I was an entrepreneur.

I use this example in an attempt to paint a visual image of one way in which nudity was used to empower an individual.

However, in the case of Egypt's nude revolutionary, my question to readers is: Is any time the right time for the clothes to come off when advocating women's rights? Is this truly an act of self-expression?

What They Bear. Why They Run.

2011-11-26T13:06:00.000-08:00

This week, millions of people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), a war-ravaged African country, voted in their second ever presidential and parliamentary election.

With a population of over 70 million and one of the highest occurrences of rape in the world, the New York Times reported fear of violent outbreaks due to Congo’s elections because of fraudulent politics and, essentially, DRC's reverse development. “This year the United Nations ranked it dead last of the 187 countries on the Human Development Index.”

The Democratic Republic of Congo is also known to be one of the worst places on earth to be a woman.

In mid-May, a study in the American Journal of Public Health, found that 400,000 females aged 15-49 were raped over a 12-month period in 2006 and 2007. The greatest numbers of rapes were found in DRC's North Kivu. There an average of 67 women out of 1,000 have been raped. At least once. That’s 48 women an hour.

Imagine. Having to go into a forest. The only place. To find food. For your children.
Imagine. Emerging raped. Not once. Not twice. Every time. Any time. Whenever.
Imagine. Returning home. And being raped. By your partner.

According to the Christan Science Monitor, this is daily life for Congolese women. “Rape is becoming p art of the culture,” said Michael Van Rooyen, the director of Harvard’s Humanitarian Initiative and an expert on rape in the Congo.

One Man’s Journey for Congolese Women
For two years, Londoner Chris Jackson has lived in absolute dedication to sport, not just as a human rights advocate but also as an athlete and spokesperson for Congolese rape victims. He’s completed myriad heroic athletic acts to raise awareness of the horror women in Congo live every single day of their lives. Rampant and repeated sexual violence. Rape as a weapon of war.

Chris shares, "Basically, I've spent the last two years undertaking a few different challenges to bring the conflict in the DRC to the attention of people by running 12 marathons in 12 months. At the end of all the running, I damaged my achilles and decided to focus on my arms instead. This led me to take part in one of the longest kayak races in the world, the Yukon River Quest. 500 miles of unsupported kayaking in less than 72hrs."

In support of Women for Women International and Run for Congo Women, overall last year Jackson raced a marathon a month, including one in Congo, to ensure our world is cognizant of stark truths:

Despite the signing of international peace agreements, a deadly 15 year war continues in DRC. International organizations estimate that since 1998, 5.4 million people have died in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The death toll is the equivalent of an Asian Tsunami every 6.5 months. A September 11 every 2.5 days. And nearly half of the deaths in the Congo are of children under the age of five.

Now, try to conjure how many women and children have been raped throughout that war.

Recently, Cosmopolitan magazine honored Chris Jackson as Cosmo’s Ultimate Man of the Year. In his acceptance speech, Jackson shared of why he remains dedicated to Congolese women. "Many women in the Congo have spent their life running from fear, suffered the cruelest attacks, but still get up in the morning and remain strong and work, work to pay for their child to go to school. It should be those beautiful, courageous, and resilient women that are recognised for their determination. Women like Solange, Alice, and Generose."

After receiving the award, Jackson completed the 2011 ING New York City Marathon in 2 hours and 55 minutes.

One Woman's Journey for Women's Health
Racing the NYC Marathon that same day was also world-renowned supermodel, founder of Every Mother Counts (EMC), and director of No Woman, No Cry, Christy Turlington Burns who began advocating for women’s health after she faced complications during her own pregnancy.

While Burns completed her first ever marathon alongside a team of nine EMC runners, she also challenged mom’s across America to run a 5K in ode to the harrowing statistics women face during childbirth in developing countries.

Every 90 seconds a women dies from complications of childbirth and 90 percent of these deaths are preventable.

Every Mother Counts shares, “A 5K is less than the average distance a pregnant woman in the developing world must travel to receive the basic health care she needs to deliver her baby. And often that is simply too far to walk for a woman who is 9 months pregnant, in labor, and has no access to transportation.”

With over 100 participants, Every Mother Counts 5K initiative shows that women everywhere support global maternal health. In fact, that is precisely what inspired Burns as she ran.

"Running my first NYC marathon was truly a life changing experience for me," said Burns. "Throughout the entire race and especially as I crossed the finish line, I thought about the spotlight our Every Mother Counts team cast on maternal health leading up to the marathon Sunday and all those moms for whom distance is perhaps the biggest barrier they may face in accessing the critical care they deserve. Our hope is that this marathon and 5K Run/Walk was the kick-off to many more races we will organize around the country to advocate on behalf of the health and well-being of girls and women."

That is Their World, Not Ours
In human rights, the moment they becomes us means achieving an understanding of why we all matter. Together. Sometimes this happens on a grand scale.

Over the weekend, Americans celebrated Thanksgiving, a hallmark of historical revisionism but a holiday that lends to thankfulness and, yes, the tradition of watching football. Around this time last year, I stood in the press box of the 2500th Marathon held in Athens, Greece to honor endurance running, its tradition, but also to acknowledge how story forges both the inspiration and culture of my sport.

At the time, Greece was already mired in overt economic crisis but the legacy of Greek war messenger Pheidippides, who died trying to deliver news about the Battle of Marathon, brought swells of devoted athletes from all over the world to race in honor of his trek.

As I wrote about the marathon's point of origin 2500 years ago, I also shared that every year for the past 28 the Athens Classic Marathon is run in memory of Grigoris Lambrakis, a brilliant athlete, scientist, politician, and pacifist who in April 1963 helped organize the Greece Pacifist Movement. As an advocate of social justice, Lambrikis had participated in myriad international meetings on peace, yet his life ended shortly after a march in May 1963 due to deadly beatings.

The recent acknowledgment of Penn State’s rape culture—forged under the guise of a foundation for already vulnerable children—further disquiets any culture, community, or country worldwide that allows for the rape of our world’s most vulnerable. Once silenced by the powers that surrounded them and suffocated their voices, victims may now potentially gain justice, or at least have a slight chance toward achieving it. The fact is, our entire world must strengthen both women and children’s health and our access to justice to increase humanity’s well-being. Ours.

As Congolese (and Egyptians) cast votes, they speak out for all rights. And, to every woman or child who struggles to find and achieve health and safety, I say: we have beared enough. For far too long.

Take part in a 5K for Girls on the Run International, an organization preparing girls for a lifetime of healthy respect and living through running.

Over It [The Huffington Post]
Millions Vote in Congo Despite Fear of Violence [NY Times]
The Penn State Scandal and Rape Culture [RH Reality Check]

From Cassatt to Woodman: Ideal Space

2011-11-21T10:11:00.000-08:00

This week, I led a discussion in class about the feminine ideal, the American-born artist, Mary Cassatt, and the use of space as a metaphor for sexuality/gender roles. It was a rich conversation but I was surprised at how accepting the class was about the assigned role of domesticity to a specific gender (feminine). While considering the prevailing concepts of what feminine beauty looked like--and what it promised the viewer--we compared two images, Cassatt's Mother and Child and Kenyon Cox's Eclogue:

Mary Cassatt. Mother and Child. 1905. Image courtesy of the National Gallery of Art Collection online.

Cassatt's work is an Impressionist version of a popular theme of mother and child. While the usual religious symbolism was omitted, the implicit piety of motherhood still resonates. As a matter of formal analysis, we discussed the "feminine" distinction of inhabiting predominantly domestic spaces. In addition, we considered the use of contemporary, "real" women as a means of subtly challenging the historical infrastructure of the feminine ideal. Consider this while looking at Cox's Neoclassical version of his subjects.

Kenyon Cox. Eclogue. 1890. Image courtesy of the Smithsonian American Art Museum online.

Cassatt's delicate yet independent illustration of a private connection reminds me of a more intense twin image--Edouard Manet's Post-Impressionist work that shocked the French public, Olympia. As noted in the PBS Culture Shock: Flashpoints summary of this image's legacy:

But instead of following the accepted practice in French art, which dictates that paintings of the figure are to be modeled on historical, mythical, or biblical themes, Manet chooses to paint a woman of his time -- not a feminine ideal, but a real woman, and a courtesan at that. And he paints her in his own manner: in place of the smooth shading of the great masters, his forms are painted quickly, in rough brushstrokes clearly visible on the surface of the canvas.

Edouard Manet. Olympia. 1863-65. Image courtesy of PBS onli

In Olympia, the viewer is further compelled to see femininity for what it is--a constructed lifestyle. While Manet's less innocent subject matter remains a scandalous image in Art History, it does open up the conversation to what the feminine ideal can be based on the context. Furthermore, like Cassatt's earlier painting, Manet's continuation of the unidealized surface (via Post-Impressionism) does not grant viewers a dehumanized subject to admire (no goddesses or vessels here). I admired the statement about Olympia, as discussed in the PBS article:

His model, Victorine Meurent, is depicted as a courtesan, a woman whose body is a commodity...A real woman, flaws and all, with an independent spirit, stares out from the canvas...

Last weekend, the same bold and self-aware spirit emanated throughout the rooms as I walked around SFMoMA's Francesca Woodman retrospective, which spanned her early work at RISD, her thesis show (amazing!), and her later work. I found this video, which is a good estimation of why her work makes such an impact regarding the feminine ideal as we understand it today. It was breathtaking.

Respecting the Earth's Mother

2011-11-17T13:35:00.000-08:00

Photo caption

“We realize there is still a long road to go down to achieve respect and dignity for indigenous women. We need to build an inclusive network that can persist over time,” says Tarcila Rivera Zea, Coordinator of the Network of Indigenous Women of South America.

Throughout the world, first peoples or indigenous peoples find their languages, cultures, values, environments and in some cases their lives under constant threat. In every corner of the world, indigenous people are among the poorest, most socially excluded and discriminated against groups. In many respects the world's natives, who account for nearly 350 million out of a global population of seven billion, remain an occupied people.

Before occupation, indigenous women held a respected role in society with regards to property ownership, decision-making as it related to the community and were in control of their bodies.

Civilisation coupled with climate change has changed this reality as women are no longer able to rely upon the elder who was the keeper of herbs to assist in health care issues. Nowadays, women are forced to seek western means of health services but due to their status of living in poor, rural and under-developed areas many perish during childbirth.

In the Congo, where indigenous people represent nearly two percent out of a population of almost four million, women are discouraged from accessing proper health facilities during childbirth due to the negative stereotypes surrounding native people. According to a recent survey, the Congolese Association for Health in Cuvette-Ouest found that of the five hundred and twenty women of child-bearing age, only eight delivered at a health centre.

Besides ill-treatment from health care workers who may view these women as being from a distant culture, high fees, lack of education and language barriers all contribute to leaving this vulnerable population to fend for themselves.

Traditionally, we were taught to honour our elders and to respect tradition. That's all lost now. Indigenous peoples are the keepers of the original law, which is the belief that we as souls are placed on Mother Earth to act as caretakers. All life including the plants, animals, sea and other human beings are our kin and should be treated as part of ourselves.

Given this reality, colonial governments have a responsibility to implement free health services, cultural sensitive training for health care workers and education in schools about tradition and reverence to those that are our global elders.

The following is a short video documenting indigenous women who have been forced from their lands.

Weekends with Georgia O'Keeffe: Beauty in Simplicity

2011-11-12T18:35:00.001-08:00

Georgia O'Keeffe at her home in New Mexico. Image via proustitute.tumblr.com

I am fascinated by the lives of artists. I appreciate the work they produce, but I also love learning about the person behind that creativity, their life's journey, and how they spend their time. That's why I was delighted to read Weekends with O'keeffe, a book of journal entries, poetry, letters, and detailed observations made by writer and librarian C.S. Merrill. The author lived and worked closely with artist Georgia O'Keeffe during the later years of her life in New Mexico. Merrill's meticulously detailed writings transport the reader to 1970s New Mexico, and feel as if they are an honored guest in O'Keeffe's home.

A journal entry from May 31st, 1974 reads:

Miss O'Keeffe is wearing a blue and white kimono over her nightgown when we arrived at 8:00 pm. I gave her a loaf of bread with walnuts and apricots in it. She sat on the white sofa in the kitchen eating bread and butter and told Virginia and me how the flowers and flowing lines on her kimono gave her the feeling water flowed over her. Groups of blue flowers on white with three parallel lines flowing around and between the groups give the feel of water. I called Miss Okeeffe's kimono a "flower fall."

In Weekends with O'Keeffe, We learn so much about Georgia O'Keeffe as a person and how she lived her life on a daily basis. She was someone who appreciated the little things: flowers budding in her garden, a good piece of bread or cheese, a visit from an old friend. These simple pleasures, along with the tasks that made up her daily routine, became even more dear to her as her eyesight began to weaken. By the time Merrill met her, O'Keeffe was nearly blind.

Red Canna by Georgia O'Keeffe, painted in 1923

C.S. Merrill was in her twenties when she met O'Keeffe, who invited Merrill to visit her home in Abiquiu, New Mexico after receiving a letter the author wrote her. Merrill fully understood and savored the magnitude of the occasion. After her initial visit with the artist, she tape recorded her thoughts: "I do this recording of the meeting out of responsibility to women in the future who must know what a strong, great lady Miss O'Keeffe is...I resort to my Panasonic tape recorder now, not out of disloyalty to Miss O'Keeffe's privacy, rather out of affection for the freer ladies of the future who may need a toughening influence from this great lady."

Georgia O'Keeffe's impact on the course of American art is immeasurable. Her life's work and unwavering commitment to her vision also opened many doors for women in the arts. Weekends with O'Keeffe is a window into Georgia's world. Her reverence for the everyday serves as a reminder to look at what is right in front of us for inspiration.

Women Artists Represent!

2011-11-07T19:21:00.001-08:00

Xochitl Guerrero. Duality of Life and Death. 2011. Acrylic on canvas. Painting at the Forrealism Exhibition, November 2011.

This past weekend was a sweet milestone in terms of developing an art practice and a community here in Oakland, CA. Where to begin, really...

First, I'm proud to say that a dear friend of mine, Lulu, was there to share the experience in displaying work. After a year of taking classes, stressing, and alternately enjoying the art making process, we were invited to submit work for a group show. And, what a group show it was! As a part of a larger art event, Oakland's Art Murmur, the Forrealism Exhibition was a glimpse into a longstanding and thriving community of established Bay Area artists.

Although the exhibition encompassed both men and women from the Latino community, two women stood out among the group of mature artists: Patricia Rodriguez, co-founder of the pivotal group Las Mujeres Muralistas, and Xochitl Guerrero. Guerrero is a noted figure in the Chicano/mural movement in the Bay Area, specifically the Mission District in San Francisco (we discovered her work at the reception and her piece opens this post). Like Guerrero, Rodriguez is also known throughout the Mission. Here's an image I took of Rodriguez's post-Muralistas art work. The boxes exemplify her skillful use of color and symbolism.


Patricia Rodriguez. Multimedia box at the Forrealism Exhibition, November 2011.

At moments, I felt as if we were looking into a privileged yet wholly democratic approach to sharing art work with the public. Independent vendors, students, artists, and others all converged for a night of celebrating. Here's an image of how inspired we were at the opening reception, showing my friend (Lulu), her husband (Kody), and me.

Arab Hip Hop Queen Malikah

2011-11-03T12:27:00.001-07:00

Daily life for women in the Arab world is never an easy task in a male-dominated society. So imagine being one of very few female emcees taking on the testosterone-driven world of Arabic hip hop. But, MC Lix aka Malikah, which means Queen in Arabic, is doing just that.

Born into a Lebanese/Algerian family in Marseille, France in 1986, Malikah has spent the last nine years not only establishing herself as a well respected MC but also letting the world know that Arab women have something to say and should be respected.

Proclaimed the "Best MC in Lebanon" after making her mark on MTV Hip HopNa, Malikah has become the voice of female empowerment through her music. One of her trademark songs is Ya Imra’a, which encourages women to fight for their rights and freedom -- despite all the obstacles they face in the Middle East and North Africa.

Here's a little taste of the Queen in action.

At the onset of her career, Malikah faced her own obstacles. Besides battling her male counterparts, she was also forced to cover her face whenever making public concerts due to the opposition she faced from her family of being a rapper. On stage, Malikah is a force to be reckoned with. She is hardcore and serious when it comes to politics and social issues, but smooth when it comes to singing about love and friendship.

Currently, Malikah is hard at work creating her debut album, The Coronation. Here’s a link to her MySpace page to keep up with all her doings.

Pacific Standard Time: Women and Art in Los Angeles

2011-11-01T11:40:00.000-07:00

This fall the art world buzz is centered on Los Angeles, California. The city is the focus of Pacific Standard Time, a collaboration between more than 60 cultural institutions across Southern California telling the story of the birth of L.A.'s art scene. West Coast art and artists broadened the landscape of contemporary art. New York had a more established modern art scene, and set the pace for much of what went on in the art world.For many years, Los Angeles was considered an artistic underdog (the area was more known for its sunny weather and movie stars than for fine art), and the contributions of its artists weren't taken seriously. But L.A. artists rebelled against the arts establishment, introducing new materials and work methods, and truly enriched American art. There were many women artists at the forefront of art making in the "wild west," and they made important contributions.

Betye Saar's The Liberation of Aunt Jemima, 1972. Photo via Netropolitan.org

One woman who played a prominent role in the postwar Los Angeles art scene was Betye Saar, an artist who is best known for her assemblage pieces depicting themes of racial pride, spirituality, and ancestral history. Saar created her works with objects she collected in her travels to places such as Mexico, Europe, and Haiti as well as flea markets around Los Angeles. The artist is one of several featured in Now Dig This! Art and Black Los Angeles 1960-1980, an exhibition currently on view at UCLA's Hammer Museum as part of Pacific Standard Time. Saar seamlessly wove found objects with those of significance to her own family, thus placing her personal legacy within a larger historical context. She also collected racist memorabilia, giving figures and images trapped in stereotypical roles new and more empowering meaning, thus "liberating" the characters, and in turn the hearts and minds of African Americans. Her repurpose of this memorabilia reflected a new consciousness that was beginning to take hold in Black America, which was in a state of great change from the Civil Rights and Black Power movements.

Detail of Bittersweet (Bessie Smith) by Betye Saar. Image via Courteney Elizabeth Graham

Los Angeles was also home to Asco, a Chicano conceptual multimedia performance art group active from the late 1960s through the 1980s. The Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art is presenting Asco: Elite of the Obscure, A Retrospective, 1982-1987. The name Asco comes from the spanish phrase 'me da asco', or 'it disgusts me.' Asco had two female founding members: Patssi Valdez and Diane Gamboa.

Patssi Valdez and Harry Gamboa, Jr. in Asco's Instant Mural performance. Photo via bombsite.com

Asco staged thought provoking performance actions on the streets of L.A., and were greatly influenced by events and daily life in their community of East Los Angeles. Asco's Instant Mural was a direct response to the Chicano Mural Movement, in which murals were being created around the city depicting uplifting scenes of community strength, racial pride, and ties to indigenous roots. With Instant Mural, Asco expanded the idea of what Chicano art was. Patssi Valdez was at the center of many of Asco's performances, while Diane Gamboa worked behind the scenes as "consultant, stylist, and referee."

Patssi Valdez in Spray Paint LACMA, 1972. Photo by Harry Gamboa, Jr.

One of ASCO's most high profile performances was Spray Paint LACMA. The piece was inspired by an encounter Harry Gamboa had with a curator at the Los Angeles Contemporary Museum of Art. "Spray Paint LACMA...was conceived in response to a LACMA curator's dismissive statement that Chicanos made graffiti not art, hence their absence from the gallery walls. In other words, 'Chicano Art' was a categorical impossibility," writes Chon A. Noriega in Afterall: A Journal of Art, Context, and Enquiry. After this encounter, Gamboa returned to LACMA with Asco's other members to spray paint their names on the front wall of the museum and take this photo with Valdez as the central figure. Noriega writes, "in signing the museum, Asco collapsed the space between graffiti and conceptual art, at once fulfilling the biased thinking that justified their exclusion and refiguring the entire museum as an art object itself..."

Mother Art, Laundry Works Poster Advertising Performances 1974. Photo via Pacific Standard Time.

Also included in Pacific Standard Time is an exhibition called Doin It in Public: Feminism and Art at the Woman's Building. Founded in 1973, The Woman's Building was an interdisciplinary artist space that served as a workspace and testing ground for feminist visual and performance art, as well as political activism. Several collectives operated out of the building, including the members of Judy Chicago's groundbreaking Feminist Studio Workshop at Fresno State University, the Feminist Art Workers, and Mother Art, a group of women artists and mothers who staged performances and exhibitions in places such as laundromats in order to question and redefine "women's work".

Ann Gauldin and members of the Feminist Studio Workshop perform Ready to Order in 1978. Photo by Maria Karras Jerri Allyn

One of the most well known performance series to emerge from The Woman's Building artists was The Waitresses. Created in 1977 by members of the Feminist Studio Workshop who were waiting tables to pay for college (and regularly being subjected to objectification and harassment on the job), The Waitresses staged public performances in local restaurants, using humor to draw attention to issues women face in the workplace and stereotypes about waitresses.

Women's contributions to the Los Angeles art scene are numerous and diverse, although their contributions are often minimized or overlooked when the L.A. scene is documented. Pacific Standard Time exhibitions are on view in venues throughout Southern California, and the PST website provides timelines, photographs, and history for many L.A. artists and art movements.

CLIO TALKS BACK: Do Mothers Have a History?

2011-10-31T13:05:00.000-07:00

The illustration above is possibly the first and oldest illustration of a birth by Caesarian section. Not all mothers give birth the usual way.

Clio found this illustration in the first comprehensive history of motherhood, written by her colleagues Catherine Fouquet and Yvonne Knibiehler. Their lavishly illustrated volume, which spans the centuries from the Middle Ages to the later twentieth century, is a book that women’s historians ever since have admired, envied, and tried to supplement. It is a book from which we can all learn a great deal.

Here are the authors’ thoughts from the Introduction to their history of motherhood, as translated from the French by Clio. Their observations are still worth pondering as the International Museum of Women prepares to launch its online exhibition “Mama.”

Do Mothers - and Motherhood - have a history?

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

"Historians have hardly paid attention to mothers. If a Blanche of Castille, a Catherine de Medici have attracted their attention, it is especially because they were queens and their motherhood carried political weight. Traditional history hardly entered into private life: first defined as the expression of human collectivities, it cristallized around the State and the Nation. Why did Herodotus write his Histories? To tell how the Greek people, despite their small number, triumphed over a great king with innumerable troops: thanks to this triumph, the Greeks became conscious of their national identity and their freedom. It was there that history was born, as consciousness of liberty: born of the idea that the human being was achieved through a collective destiny. In order to enter the field of history, it must, one thought, shed its individual dimension, the intimate and personal part of its existence. In this perspective, there can be no history except political history, at the civic level. . .].

"Mothers, with very rare exceptions, belong to private life, and even to the most intimate aspects of private life. They do not have history: at least this is what one might think, given the silence of historians. But, in our time, private life falls with a great clamour into the public domain, and everything becomes political. Could one go so far as to say that the recent laws on abortion and contraception have granted mothers this liberty which is the first condition of history? This would be false: they have acquired there an entirely negative, entirely individual liberty, the liberty for each to not be a mother, but not that of existing as mothers, collectively and actively. In fact, it was the public powers which constituted mothers as a homogenous but passive group, when they began to get nervous about the drop in the birth rate. Then we witnessed [the advent of] Mother’s Day, Motherhood Medals, assistance to mothers, protection of mothers. At the end of the nineteenth century and especially in the interwar period [of the twentieth century], one could suddenly measure the political importance of anonymous mothers in the nation. It is from there that the historians have taken up the issue: by interrogating the origins of dénatalité, they began to be concerned with mothers, but only indirectly, without placing them at the center of their inquiry. These first investigations, however, sufficed to make it clear that maternity lay neither outside time nor outside history.

"Once admitted as a subject of history, one must define it and locate its limits. To begin with, where does maternity begin and where does it end? The young woman who has just conceived for the first time – is she already a mother? And the grandmother who knits for her children’s children, is she still one? Does a mother who loses her children cease to be a mother? Maternity has no end. She who abandons her little ones, she who slays them, becomes an “unnatural mother,” a “criminal mother” – she does not cease to be a mother in the eyes of society. Further, who is a mother? She who gives birth to the infant? She who raises it? She who cherishes it and will love it always whatever else happens? In other words, is motherhood a biological function, a social function, a psycho-affective function? In one period, in one collectivity, one of these functions has been accented without the others necessarily disappearing. And how can we account for the cruel stepmother [marâtre], the godmother, the mother-in-law, the big sister who takes care of the little ones? Finally, motherhood is not the result of parthogenesis. The material and moral situation of the mother, her relationship to the infant, depend to a very great extent on the father, for better or worse. Can one speak of mothers, even of unmarried mothers, without thinking of love, marriage, laws and norms, of mentalities and family customs?

"Thus it is a vast subject, of indecisive form, this history of mothers. It spills over into the history of medicine and health by the birth process and care to newborns, into the history of demography by rates of birth and death, into that of material life and techniques with housework, into that of mentalities with regard to the carving up of masculine and feminine roles and generational conflicts, that of education, that of feelings. The quest for sources, indispensable materials for the historian, is not so easy. The historian quickly discovers that the consultable documents fall into two categories: on the one hand those that contain concrete information on maternal behavior, and on the other those who talk about maternity or who depict it. The first group are particularly of the demographic or ethnographic sort. By looking at documents from the civil registry and parish registers, demographic historians have been able to establish, for example, the age of mothers when their first child is born, the spacing of births, the total number of children born and surviving, the number of illegitimate births, of foundlings, of babies put out to wetnurses. Other sources provide information on traditional means of preventing births, the rate of infanticides, the closing of ranks by families around children. The ethnologists, for their part, explore the concrete environment of maternity and traditional practices about giving birth, breastfeeding, and infant care. All these phenomena can vary considerably with respect to the time, place, and surroundings: economic, political, and cultural factors that underlie these differences begin to be discernable little by little, attesting to the fact that mothers certainly do have a history. As for the discourses and representations that motherhood has inspired, they are for the most part produced by men. Theologians and moralists who announce the divine will, physicians and anthropologists who reveal the order of nature, jurists and statesmen who formulate the needs of society, artists who translate a sensibility: all speak abundantly about what a mother is and what she should be.

"During this time, paradoxically, the women, the mothers keep still. They have written poems and novels about love: they have not written poems or novels about maternal love. Even their letters are often lacking on this subject, apart from those of Madame de Sévigné. Nor do they describe their specific experiences: neither giving birth nor nursing have been the objects of any sincere and profound accounts until very recently. At the dawn of the nineteenth century one can see, at the same time as a decisive progress in the reduction of the birthrate among those in the higher levels of society, the arrival of a number of texts by women about little children. This is no accident, insofar as it is true that the act of writing is above all else the expression of a freedom. As long as babies were simply something one submitted to, the sign of biologic destiny, they were not discussed. The silence of women is a fact of civilization which scarcely lends itself to simple interpretations: the history of mothers is mysterious and difficult.

"Then why try to write it?

"History is memory. Individuals who lose their memories lose their identities at the same time. The same thing goes for human groups: inasfar as a group has no history, it has no identity, it does not exist as a group, however numerous it might be. But if it gives itself a history, it begins to exist; at the same time as its past, it has the possibility of constructing its future. The authors of this book, mothers and women historians hope to aid women in constructing theirs."

Source: “Les Mères ont-elles une histoire?,” Introduction to Yvonne Knibiehler and Catherine Fouquet, L’Histoire des Mères du moyen-âge à nos jours (Paris: Editions Montalba, 1980), pp. 4-6. Transl. from the French by Karen Offen

Women Helping Women: Somalian Famine Refugees Find Relief in Neighboring Kenya

2011-10-26T12:22:00.000-07:00

The people of Somalia are in need of so much. They need a stable government – or any government at all, really, having basically been without one for the past two decades. They need jobs, income, clothing, medical care.

But perhaps right now, more than anything, they just need a little rain.

An East Africa drought continues to plague Somalia and neighboring countries, causing a famine that’s estimated to have cost tens of thousands of Somalian residents their lives thus far. But thanks to a for-women, by-women program in northeast Kenya, some 2,700 Somalian women and their families have found a bit of relief.

Womankind Kenya, along with partners such as MADRE and Zenab for Women in Development, has provided food, water and anti-diarrheal medicine to these women and their families, in addition to counseling and medical services to women who have survived rape or robbery during the trek to Kenya.

“We counsel women who arrive traumatized from sexual violence, from being uprooted from their home communities, or from burying a child along the way,” said Hubbie Hussein al-Haji, pictured above, executive director of Womankind Kenya. “We ensure pregnant and breastfeeding women emaciated from famine receive the nutrition and health care they desperately need.”

Hussein al-Haji says the famine could be somewhat lessened if regional resources were adequately and sensibly used.

“While the worst drought in six decades has destroyed crops in the northeast, very close by in the south of Kenya, the farms are green and plentiful,” she said. “People are growing wheat, vegetables and more. But this locally-grown food is not getting to the people who need it. Meanwhile, the price of staple crops like rice, corn and wheat is shooting up. Drought means that poor people can no longer raise their own food for lack of water. If the prices go up, they can’t buy food either.”

In the meantime, women-focused partnerships will continue to help as many famine escapees as possible. MADRE recently utilized one of its partner organizations, a group of women farmers in Sudan, to deliver a crucial supplement to Womankind and the refugees it supports. Hussein al-Haji says that in addition to this help from outside organizations, creating more sustainable, locally grown food sources will be key to aiding famine victims and preventing future outbreaks.

The Ultimate Sacrifice: Tragedy in Tibet

2011-10-25T12:19:00.000-07:00

Last week, in the highest form of nonviolent resistance, a 20 year old women, Tenzin Wangmo, set herself fire in a Tibetan town near China, imploring that the Chinese government grant religious freedom to Tibet and allow for the peaceful return of The Dalai Lama. While Tenzin Wangmo was the 9th Tibetan to self-immolate in protest of the Chinese policies against Tibet this year alone, she is the first woman in the Free Tibet movement to have take this action- ever.

Tragically, self-immolation is rather common amongst women in some parts of the world, particularly Afghanistan. However, more often than not in these cases, the most commonly sited cause for such action is an extreme reaction to violence against women. 'Women and girls appear to see this horrifying act as a means of both escaping from intolerable conditions and speaking out against abuse, since their actual voices do not bring about changes that would allow them to lead safe and secure lives.' Conversely, some view Tenzin Wangmo's act as the most extreme act of selflessness--some Buddhists believe that only through their own suffering can they bring Enlightenment to others.

Not surprisingly, reaction to her death has been mixed. “The Dalai Lama has said many times in the past that suicidal protests are not something he approves of or wants to encourage, but he can’t put himself in the position of criticizing people’s right to protest, and he certainly can’t put himself in the position of saying these people don’t experience intolerable pressure … It’s quite clear that they do.”

Kara Walker on My Mind

2011-10-24T09:46:00.000-07:00

Image via Wikipedia

"Is that a razor blade she's holding?"

This was my observant friend's first reaction when I shared my current reading material.

This week, I resumed reading a book that's been leaving impressions on just about all interactions that I've had lately--from workplace conversations about regional cultural climates to quieter moments of reflection about racism.

Gwendolyn Dubois Shaw's, Seeing the Unspeakable: The Art of Kara Walker, has considered Walker's evolution as an artist while distilling the painful reality of racism at the same time. Furthermore, it discusses the formation of a global dialogue that can stir complex feelings about one's own identity. Chapter 4, "Censorship and Reception," was especially considerate in relating Walker's powerful imagery. While reading, I learned that even fellow artists have questioned Walker's "appropriateness," which brings up an important question: who do we ultimately answer to as individual artists, and how does a sense of community foster that?

A New York Times article summed up her uncategorizable presence as an African-American artist in the art industry, by noting:

Race dominates everything, yet within it Ms. Walker finds a chaos of contradictory ideas and emotions. She is single-minded in seeing racism as a reality, but of many minds about exactly how that reality plays out in the present and the past.

What I admire about Walker's career is her appeal to viewers that rests upon disconcerting moments influencing contemporary culture. Installations such as Insurrection (Our Tools Were Rudimentary, Yet We Pressed On) invite visitors to examine the smaller actions assigned to each silhouetted figure. Violence, whimsy, and an overarching solitude embody each figure; each is seeking liberation in some form (sexual, emotional, and everything in between).

Insurrection! (Our Tools Were Rudimentary, Yet We Pressed On), 2000. Cut paper silhouettes and light projections, dimensions variable. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.

The study of the visual history of slavery--and more specifically the antebellum period--is a task that has informed Walker's contemplation of her own identity. She's not afraid to imagine new roles for established "heroes," either. One of the most enlightening discussions in this book relates to John Brown, the famous abolitionist. The Lactation of John Brown struck me as an image that could potentially alienate the most liberal viewers because it essentially placed the sturdy symbol (Brown) in a feminized, and some would say weaker, position; the image posits him as a would-be maternal figure who is unfortunately unable to nourish a small child. There's so much to discuss about it, and Shaw relates Brown's complex visual representation as a collection of images that leave much out of public consciousness.

This is what I learned today: During a multi-themed conversation with the aforementioned friend, I did mention ruminations about race, national identity, and other details that marked daily events. Sometimes, I get embarrassed for expressing this, and wonder if it's imaginary. Yet, in a moment of unexpected happenstance, a young girl walked by and made a fairly racialized remark that seemed to fit the prior conversation to an unsettling degree. It was both comforting for being tangible to the friend and frustrating for its misguided carelessness. We walked on and noted the passing encounter. The truth is that I was glad someone was there to witness, and I suspect that Shaw had a desire to share this (potentially) mutual consciousness about Walker's work, too. Contextualizing our experiences is at the heart of creative liberation.

I'm asking more questions lately about making art and deciding what it's for on a broader scale, and would like to hear more about your own experiences as an art supporter, critic, or maker. Where does your identity fit into your understanding of this part of culture?

Please feel free to share moments of controversy, empowerment, guidance, and community!

Lebanese artist Ginou Choueiri

2011-10-20T13:15:00.000-07:00

This week I thought that I would lighten up a bit and introduce a very special Lebanese artist, Ginou Choueiri. I met Ginou five years ago at a party the first night I arrived in Lebanon. In the beginning, I never inquired about her work but it was clear that she was an artist of life by the positive creative vibes oozing out of her being.

After completing a degree in Marketing at the University of Connecticut, Ginou returned to Beirut and started a career in advertising. Seven years later after realizing that she was destined for greater creativity, Ginou traveled to Barcelona to participate in Metafora’s International Art Workshop and has been making art ever since.

Her work has been exhibited in venues such as the Contemporary Cultural Center of Barcelona, the Mario Merz Foundation in Turin, Italy, and Beirut Art Lounge. Last year, her mural "Nomad’s Land" was part of the Pop Up Lisboa 2010 Festival. Here’s a video of Ginou in action.

Ginou’s long-term project, "Potato Portraits," has created a global buzz. The series, which uses potatoes as the main canvas, saw the transformation of political figures, celebrities, friends, and family to random people Ginou would meet on the streets into potato heads.

"I chose the potato to portray human faces because of the many striking parallels. Not only is their skin porous like ours, but their skin texture and color is very similar, and like us, they come in different sizes, shapes and forms. Potatoes grow, live, and then decay, mirroring the ephemeral existence and fragility of our own human nature." – Ginou

Sarah White: Chronicling Oman

2011-10-18T11:59:00.000-07:00

Originally from United Kingdom but having resided in Oman for over half of her life, visual artist Sarah White’s work has evolved over time into a continuous narrative of her engagement with Oman, interweaving the colors, textures, history, and the cultural vibrancy of her environment into it.

Much of Sarah’s earlier work dealt with exploring Omani architectural spaces, focusing on minute architectural details and imbuing them with what has now become a characteristic kaleidoscopic, iridescent palette. Her interest in architecture and its surrounding environment has been a focal point of her work since her education at Canterbury College of Art, the University of the West of England, and the Royal College of Art. “During my art school years, my parents moved to Oman and I was inspired by the country’s traditional architecture and particularly the way in which people adapted to the harsh geographic conditions through their built environment,” she tells Her Blueprtint, adding that she then sought to record as much traditional Omani architecture as she could while learning about the shapes, textures, and colors of a country that had instantaneously fascinated her.

In her most recent exhibition, In Homage To (also featuring Omani artist Juma al Harthy), she focuses upon the historic 17th century castle of Jabreen, which has been an enduring presence in her work for over two decades. “My personal interpretation and emotional response to this historic space with all its aesthetic details and cultural significance forms the basis of the exhibition,” she describes.

A work from In Homage to Jabreen

A glimpse into her large body of work reveals that the intense, microscopic focus that White places upon architectural detail, magnifying its beauty is similarly lavished upon Omani women’s clothing, which themselves are visual implosions of colors, patterns, and embellishments. “Omani women are very creative and their dresses are pieces of art in themselves,” she says.

The theme of adornment, whether through clothing or make-up, greatly interests White. "Our perceptions of our own beauty as human beings can be quite bizarre and women need make-up to alter themselves in order to fulfill their personal expectations of being beautiful," says White. "Make-up, therefore, becomes a vital accessory in addition to hair styles, shoes, and outfits.”

Moving beyond a generalized exploration of make-up and specifically locating it in an Omani context, she draws attention to the fact that the art of make-up in Oman is highly creative, innovative and flamboyant. "[My interest and work] had a lot to do with the growth of the make-up industry in Oman; women here greatly endorse professional make-up and are hugely creative about it,” she concludes.

Exploration of make-up

White’s personal and artistic identity in Oman is encapsulated in her award-winning piece, A Life Eclectic. “I have developed an eclectic lifestyle and cultural background and the piece reflects my personal emotions, fears, challenges and passions,” she says; in addition to being an artist, White has actively worked alongside many Omani artists over the years and works for Bait al Zubair Foundation, an organization that preserves, promotes and advances the arts and culture of the Sultanate.

A Life Eclectic

All images courtesy Sarah White

Breast Cancer Awareness Month: For Women Globally.

2011-10-12T16:06:00.000-07:00

Breast Cancer is a type of cancer that predominantly affects women. One in eight women will receive a diagnosis of breast cancer. It affects women of all races and is most prevalent in women over 50 years of age. There are risk factors such as age, genetics, medication, and environmental exposure to certain toxins that can increase or exacerbate risk.

Risk factors can vary depending on race, environment, and culture. For example, a study by the World Cancer Research Fund attributed the drinking culture in Britain to the higher incidence of breast cancer in women. This was compared to women in East Africa where women have virtually no exposure to alcohol. The highest incidence rates are in women in the West including the United States, United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and Canada. However, ethnic women in western countries are also at a greater risk. The World Health Organization (WHO) attributes this increased risk in the West to the lifestyle.

Regardless of location, women should be taught to be aware of any changes in the breast. For some women it is uncomfortable touching or looking at their bodies, so health educators have begun to address this through creative resources that are inclusive to all women.

The creator of Worldwide Beast Cancer uses visual imagery in the form of lemons and cupcakes to educate women about breast cancer. The hard seed in a lemon is demonstrated as what a tumor looks like. The images, which only show a silhouette of a woman, make it easy for women of all ethnicities to relate. In focus groups, women in Qatar reported that ““I love the idea that the woman has no features and black hair, which could make her Indian, Pakistani, Asian or Arab.” The development of visual materials facilitates learning where sometimes literacy issues may be a problem.

In the United Kingdom, Europe, and Canada prevention and screening are covered by governmental supported programs. In the United States, women with insurance can access regular mammograms and treatment if necessary. There are programs to cover women without health insurance and women can contact the National Cancer Institute for information. Since breast cancer incidence remains low in other developing nations, governmental focus is often not on breast cancer. The World Health Organization has documented programs in India as a role model and good basis of prevention and screening. Organized screening programs are made available in certain areas and local distribution of literature promotes breast awareness. Prevention for all women regardless of ethnicity includes guidelines for a healthy lifestyle, avoiding tobacco use, limiting alcohol intake, keeping weight within healthy limits. Others can be beyond the individual woman’s control such as exposure to radiation and carcinogens (cancer causing substances).

While the exact cause of breast cancer has not been pinpointed, it is a treatable and manageable disease. Statistics in the US show that women of all races the mortality rate was only 24 in 100,000. Some of the resources discussed and presented in this article can be used by friends and family members and shared in their communities to raise awareness about breast cancer.

Women in the Military: Ready to Fight?

2011-10-11T08:19:00.000-07:00

Just last week, Australia (whose forces make up the largest non-NATO contingent in Afghanistan) announced that women in the military will now be allowed to fight in combat unit, including participation in both special forces and frontline combat units. While some say this move is purely symbolic, as it will take as many as five years to implement, on the face it marks some interesting gains in women's equality.

Historically, Australian women have been included in a wide range of combat-support arms units and excluded from the fighting sub-units of combat-maneuver arms units. Generally speaking, I am a pretty ardent supporter of liberalizing women's roles, but in this particular circumstance, I find myself asking some questions raised earlier this year in the Small Wars Journal:

1) Will these women be truly "equal" to men in that they'll be forced to serve in combat operations against their will, just as men must? Or will they be given the option to join combat missions?

2) If women are given the option to turn down combat missions, will men also be given the same liberties? And if not, is the military planning some way to address this issue with military families? Surely it seems a bit unfair that given two combat ready soldiers--one woman and one man, both equal in physical and psychological preparedness for battle--one is mandated to fight, while the other has the option to abstain.

3) While some technologies, such as self-propelled guns with automated loading systems, can help neutralize the physiological differences between men and women in combat, should governments be required to invest in more expensive equipments if it means achieving gender neutral objectives, but not necessarily improving operational capabilities?

I think it is wonderful that women who would like to serve their country are able. However, it is fundamentally important that this not turn into a gender-equality issue, whereby concessions are made to increase women's participation in combat units. Rather, women must be held to the same physical and phycological standards as their male counterparts, not only for their own safety, but for the safety and security of the entire unit.

Furthermore, one must recognize that the restrictions placed upon women come not from the military, which tends to be characterized as chauvinistic and misogynistic in culture, but from the government, which has an unquestionable duty to do all within its means to protect the very people willing to risk their life for the preservation of the nation. Too often we make rash judgements when hearing that women are excluded from certain roles, when we should be asking questions such as, "Will including women in combat roles increase the operational capability of her force?" or "Will including women in roles will a high probability of hand-to-hand combat increase the risk of casualties?"

It's a difficult issue without clear answers. Surely equality isn't giving women the right to choose to engage in combat missions while denying their male counterparts the same choice. What do you think?

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