Easy Ways For Men (and Women!) to Become Better Feminists

Paulette Moore’s call for Easy Ways For Men (and Women!) to Become Better Feminists gave me a lot of food for thought. To the often heard question what can men do to support feminism, there are some motivating ideas:

1. Don’t laugh at sexist jokes.
2. Belly laugh to the comic genius of Tina Fey and Amy Poehler.
3. Move to clean up dishes after a meal before anyone else does.
4. Read biographies about women. Start with Mary Shelley, author of Frankenstein by Miranda Seymour. Move on to Do They Hear You When You Cry – a stunning political and personal journey by and about Fauziya Kassindja; a woman from Togo who sought asylum from the practice of female genital mutilation.
5. Read more literature, watch films created by women. Check out the mind-boggling book Orlando by Virginia Woolf. Then watch the beautiful film of the same name by director Sally Potter.
6. Stop to consider what it means that one in three women in the world has been beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. At least 1 in 4 college women will survive a sexual assault during her academic career. Now, look around at your female relatives, friends and colleagues.
7. Seek opportunities to mentor women and girls.
8. Stop to wonder whether your work colleague actually was overlooked for that promotion because she was a woman.
9. March with a woman’s group at a political rally. Have fun.
10. Suggest 10 additional easy ways for all of us to become better feminists.

Besides their suggestions, I want to add my own:

1. Expose and recognize white male privilege.

2. Expose and recognize your own entitlements and privileges.

3. Get in touch with feminist theory and critical studies in order to reinforce your arguments.

4. Support and create alliances with feminists, LGBT & queer groups, anti-racist and equality activists.

5. Discover local histories of courageous women that fought patriarchy.

6. Support feminist artists and art collectives, attend their events, buy their works.

7. Read and watch the news, react to sexism, racism and inequality in media. Start or join a feminist blog.

8. React to daily sexism and make it unwelcomed in your peer group.

9. Boycott products, companies and campaigns that use sexist advertising.

10. Suggest 10 additional easy ways for all of us to become better feminists.

How Not to Write About Africa

by Binyavanga Wainaina
narrated by Djimon Hounsou

Dress codes: anxieties and solutions

France is confused about how to make the banning of the burqa legal. A parliamentary commission will soon meet to investigate how they can ban any cloak that covers most of the face of a woman.
André Gerin, a Communist Party mayor of a Lyon suburb with many Muslims from North Africa, began the debates in late June by initiating a motion calling for this parliamentary commission. The French state had to answer his request.

“The burqa is the tip of the iceberg. Islamism really threatens us” he was complaining in a letter to the government for them “to do something”.

Sarkozy responded by saying that “the burqa is not welcome on the territory of the French Republic.” He did not specify how it would be made unwelcome. Guess still working on that part.

French domestic intelligence issued a report saying that only 367 women in France wore a full veil, while recently a woman was refused entry to a bank because employees thought a head scarf was illegal.

To all these anxieties in France, there is one possible answer. It comes from Sudan and the already famous article 152 of the Sudanese Criminal Code.

This article is used by the Public Order Police in Sudan to harass women about their dress code. Article 152 exists in Sudan since 1991. Maybe French government can check also the practicalities and implementation of such an article. It stipulates that any conduct or clothes in violation of public decency (I am sure it can be defined in a more secularized way) should be punished with 40 lashes or a bail or both. France can change some parts, but the control effect can stay the same, because after all is the same concept: best way to police women's bodies.
Thirteen women were arrested on July 3, 2009 in Khartoum under article 152 of the criminal code. The 13 women in question were arrested because they wearing trousers. They have been sentenced to 10 lashes and a bail of $100. Three of the women including a well-known journalist-Lubna Hussien- refused the punishment and asked for a lawyer and a court case. Lubna and the other three women were granted a presidential pardon, which the women refused. They have instead challenged the judge to eliminate article 152 of the criminal code.
The article is vague on what constitutes indecent clothing and stands against the country's Interim National Constitution that came in place after the Comprehensive Peace Agreement signed in 2005. However, it is still being used to harass women in the streets of Khartoum and around Sudan. French authorities can have their exceptions too, no doubt.

There is a petition against article 152 here. There is no petiton against the French parliamentary commission.

Saturday at the Pride: the two sides of the fence

Saturday was a special day. Together with more than 2000 people we marched for Budapest’s “Gay Dignity”. Remembering last year’s violent events and Jobbik’s political statement to do everything possible to stop the March, we expected another riot.

Friday was the first day of fall in Hungary with thunderstorms, wind and low temperatures. We waited for rain on Saturday also. But the weather and the March didn’t follow the predictable script. During the Pride, Andrassy utca looked awfully quiet, no locals to cheer on the sides. In front of the Opera there was one middle-aged woman dancing in support: she was applauded and cheered by the crowd. From some windows you could see other people watching. That was from our side of the fence. As some observed, Budapest Pride became mainly a TV event in terms of reaching audiences outside the event.

On the other side of the fence, like 100 meters away, extreme right-wing rioters were trying to get in but police did a great job in protecting the marchers. Concerning protesters, the only ones we have seen at the Pride were at the Hosok Tere entrance: two groups of skinheads surrounded by cops. They didn’t get in.

Otherwise, from our side the rioters were absent: we didn’t hear them, we didn’t see them and we could enjoy a very peaceful, cheerful, happy event.
Because they couldn’t get closer to throw stones, eggs, tomatoes and Molotov cocktails like last year, the protesters came with a plan B: a crowd of 500 neo-Nazis and skinheads went wild in Budapest's Jewish district. Riot police used tear gas and baton charges against the loud and violent xenophobic group. Police made more than 30 arrests. These people were using dangerous weapons and I heard that two guys with army knives were stopped earlier to enter the Pride. More details of this not-going-to-the-city-for-nothing adventure:

The rioters invaded the heart of the traditional Jewish Ghetto District, started a small fire, tore down signs and shouted threatening anti-Semitic vitriol. The attacks were witnessed by families of foreign Jews visiting the district for the current Budapest Jewish Cultural Festival.

One British tourist trying to argue with the rioters at the edge of the ghetto had to be rescued by police when he was verbally abused and physically assaulted by a gang of 20 attackers. A policeman who tried to break up a confrontation not far from there was knocked to the ground and kicked, as was a woman displaying a Gay Pride T-shirt while standing alone at a tram stop.

(from JTA)

Because how else can you solve a failed homophobic attack if not by an old-fashioned anti-Semitic rampage somewhere close to the Synagogue? These anti-Pride protesters come with a pretty coherent political discourse with their actions: hate all of them. I guess that last year old women hitting marchers with their big Bibles were in a different hate group than these guys...

Another interesting crowd that I actually saw on my way home from Blaha Luija Ter was made of Swedish football supporters. They were in town with their team and because they couldn't enjoy the Budapest tourist attractions, everything being closed in the center with the big fence that was protecting us, they decided to manifest their anger in a very particular way: they joined the extreme-right protesters in their homophobic attack on the March.... Another coherent activity for a day: start getting drunk in the morning, attack together with friendly locals the LGBT crowd or at least try to get in over the fence, get some tear gas from riot police, drink some more, go to the stadium and support your team in the cheerful hooligan style, yell some more and then get back home with your low-cost flight. Full extreme touristic program for a day.

I am still wondering what would have been without that huge fence in between. Will we need a bigger fence next year?

photos by Szandra Gonzales

Same-sex hand holding (Sshh!)

The first international Same-sex hand holding (Sshh!) Saturday starts on September 26:

On this day, same-sex couples and friends all over the world are encouraged to hold hands in public to support the visibility of Lesbian, Gay, Bi, Trans (LGBT) people. Sshh! Saturdays will occur on the last Saturday of every month, publicised by A Day In Hand. This is a revolutionary way of encouraging and inspiring LGBT people to take responsibility for their equality and live their lives without fear or restraint.

The campaign is asking people who take part to send their Sshh! photos to yourstories@adayinhand.com. The first Sshh! Saturday is held in memorium of the shooting at an LGBT youth centre in Tel Aviv “and the ongoing atrocities being committed to LGBT people in Iraq”. Queer politics are back! This is a silent revolution because nothing needs to be said: no war of words, no impassioned speeches, no organised rallies. Simply hold hands.
This is not a campaign for couples only. It's for anybody who has ever believed that love has no exceptions.

Straight people could be at the forefront in fighting for queer rights.

Straight people can support us by holding hands with someone of their same gender and uploading the pic.

Do you have to be black, to object to racism?

Do you have to be female, to object to sexism?

You can see a whole load of photos and stories on the A Day in Hand website, including the one on this post of Alice & Em at Charing Cross Station, by Mark Weeks:

Me and Em hold hands everywhere we go, I’m aware we get stared at, might even be
dangerous sometimes which scares me but I really believe it’s a basic human right to express my love for my girlfriend so I do it anyway. It’s funny not long after this photo was taken, we were walking in Islington (holding hands) when a teenage boy threw his drink over Em stating the obvious by calling us lesbians. We confirmed his suspicions and decided to educate him further by having a good old snog in front of him. He couldn’t believe our audacity and decided to coax his friends to follow us on the bus. By this point I was pooping my pants,thinking we may have gone a bit too far, but thankfully one of his friends saw sense (or noticed that a bus full of people might not tolerate any blatant homophobia quietly) and said “Leave em alone, they’re not hurting anyone, it’s up to them what they wanna do.” At which point they promptly got off the bus at the next stop and no doubt went on to harrass someone else. I was angry and scared, cautious about holding hands in public, but amazingly it also made me realise that their behaviour was because of ignorance, and the importance of A Day In Hand campaign.

via The F-Word

if even they can do it, why can't you?