300 men watch as a young girl removes her clothes, covers herself in condensed milk, approaches the ravenous audience and allows those in the front row to touch her whilst she puts a vibrator in their mouths.
This is not a porn film, but a Christmas treat for the 300 inmates of Picassent prison, some of whom are serving sentences for gender-based violence and sexual assault. Whilst several female prison guards who were present in the room for the “musical performance” left in disgust, reportedly feeling “totally degraded”, the sub-director of prisoner treatment calmly watched the show, apparently unaware that such a performance was perhaps more than a little inappropriate.
The Spanish Prison Guards Union has launched a complaint calling for the resignation of the prison’s director, notification of how much the stripper was paid (with public funds), and for a comment from the Ministry of Equality. I´ve often heard of prisons being a school for rapists, but this is unbelievable!
Friday 16 January 2009
Monday 24 November 2008
Moves to fight the oldest oppression
Under plans to change prostitution laws, those who pay for sex with women who have been forced into prostitution (by traffickers or drug dealers) might face prosecution and charges of rape. Although, in my opinion, this is a step in the right direction, it is also a very small one, and I am amazed that it has taken so long for such action to be taken! In my ignorance, I hadn't realised that paying to have sex with a woman being forced, against her will, to work as prostitute wasn't rape.
Also, since, according to police reports the majority (atleast 70%) of prostitutes in Britain are trafficked here, and therefore most men who go to prostitutes for sex are rapists, wouldn't it have been better to follow Sweden and ban it all together?
Out of those prostitutes who have "freely chosen" their line of work, I wonder what it was that helped them to make this choice. Poverty? Experience of sexual abuse as a child? Is it acceptable for men to exploit women who haven't been trafficked into prostitution but who have effectively been forced into it due to underpriviledged backgrounds?
And what effect does condoning some forms of prostitution have on the rest of us? Does it not add to a general climate of sexual aggression against and objectification of women?
Also, since, according to police reports the majority (atleast 70%) of prostitutes in Britain are trafficked here, and therefore most men who go to prostitutes for sex are rapists, wouldn't it have been better to follow Sweden and ban it all together?
Out of those prostitutes who have "freely chosen" their line of work, I wonder what it was that helped them to make this choice. Poverty? Experience of sexual abuse as a child? Is it acceptable for men to exploit women who haven't been trafficked into prostitution but who have effectively been forced into it due to underpriviledged backgrounds?
And what effect does condoning some forms of prostitution have on the rest of us? Does it not add to a general climate of sexual aggression against and objectification of women?
Wednesday 12 November 2008
Duncan's Views
Hey Jo, Kitsry (Mum) Hows things ? I realise this blog is designed to highlight women's issues but in a way I think that people feel the debate has moved on, beyond just 'women's rights' (I may be playing devil's advocate here) TV Programmes like Gok Wan's just show the level to which all people, not just women, are subjected to a dumbing down of culture and debate, in television and newspapers especially. BB1 aired a programme yesterday called 'How mad are you?' yesterday asking people to distinguish between 'normal' people and those suffering mentally illness. It seems nothing escapes the media's desire for shock and ratings. I personally think capitalism is at the heart of this not so gradual move towards popularism. As until about 2 months ago, it seemed that capitalism and deregulation would solve all the world's problems. The neo-liberal model of economics adopted by so many governments explains exactly why Bankers are paid inordinate sums of money, and consequently why childcare workers are paid so little. It explains why Gok Wan's show is aired and why women are encouraged to spend large sums of money on unnecessary amounts of clothes, make-up, surgery etc. It may be that we are still living in a patriarchal society, which has ingrained gender stereotypes. Yet the reason these programmes get shown, that women are encouraged to act, live, in a certain way, is down to the markets again. The obsession with economic growth is reliant on people buying more and more. Money must be spent, more useless products muse be purchased. Demand must be pushed up at all costs. News/Politics programmers will never be as popular Gok Wan, again market forces working through advertising mean that his programme's will be aired more frequently. Everything is now perceived in terms of it monetary value. I didn't agree with a lot of the article (below) in which Sheila Jefferys airs her views. However, She is right that it is capitalisation of humans that has prompted the rise of the global sex trade. Society is not becoming deliberately more sexist, it is just reacting to the almost virtually accepted model that everything can have a monetary value attached, and moreover, that this a good thing. Capitalism is what currently drives the sexualisation of women and of normative gender stereotypes. http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/nov/12/women-prostitution-marriage-sex-trade
Wednesday 5 November 2008
Miss Naked Beauty
Miss Naked Beauty, channel 4’s new series presented by Gok Wan, styles itself as reintroducing feminism to a new audience “by stealth”. Wondering how a beauty contest could possibly be feminist, I decided to watch an episode last night.
The programme aimed to make women of all shapes and sizes feel beautiful without piles of make-up, fake tan, hair extensions and cosmetic surgery. Yet, the problem is, the message is still that women must be beautiful. The contestants continue to be judged on their appearance rather than their achievements or ideas, and are still encouraged to use make-up, (as long as it is mineral-based of course!). The role of the programmes’ judges (including James Brown, the founder of Loaded magazine – ahem feminist????) amounted to telling the contestants how photogenic and naturally beautiful they were, and criticizing their speeches on why they wanted to be “beauty ambassadors”. Oh, and next week the remaining contestants are performing in a “natural”, “revolutionary” naked glamour model shoot.
How can we encourage women to take on the baton for feminist causes and re-ignite the women’s movement? Not with programmes like this, I hope.
The programme aimed to make women of all shapes and sizes feel beautiful without piles of make-up, fake tan, hair extensions and cosmetic surgery. Yet, the problem is, the message is still that women must be beautiful. The contestants continue to be judged on their appearance rather than their achievements or ideas, and are still encouraged to use make-up, (as long as it is mineral-based of course!). The role of the programmes’ judges (including James Brown, the founder of Loaded magazine – ahem feminist????) amounted to telling the contestants how photogenic and naturally beautiful they were, and criticizing their speeches on why they wanted to be “beauty ambassadors”. Oh, and next week the remaining contestants are performing in a “natural”, “revolutionary” naked glamour model shoot.
How can we encourage women to take on the baton for feminist causes and re-ignite the women’s movement? Not with programmes like this, I hope.
Monday 27 October 2008
"Enough ink has been spilled over the quarrel of feminism; it’s pretty much closed now – let us say no more about it"
(Naomi Segal's and Rachel Segal Hamilton's call for papers for their Women's Workshop, see http://igrs.sas.ac.uk/index.php?id=318): "...In 1949 Simone de Beauvoir began The Second Sex with the words ‘Enough ink has been spilled over the quarrel of feminism; it’s pretty much closed now – let us say no more about it’. Sixty years later, the quarrel continues. A spirit of optimism and activism reigned for women born around 1950 and entering maturity together with the feminist movement in 1969. Where are those women now and where are the generations of women that have followed?
a. Much is heard of post-feminism, the idea that the issues of the 1970s have been superseded - is this so?
b. What do the women now in their 20s and 30s think about the idea of sexual politics: is equality taken for granted or still only partially achieved?
c. In particular, what has happened to the hopes of equality with men in the couple-bond: have men proved willing to share both work and love in a domestic context?
d. If they have not, what might the reasons be, and where do we go from here?
To return to Beauvoir: Is it as true it was sixty years ago that ‘The word love has a completely different meaning for the two sexes, and this is one source of the serious misunderstandings that divide them’?..."
a. Much is heard of post-feminism, the idea that the issues of the 1970s have been superseded - is this so?
b. What do the women now in their 20s and 30s think about the idea of sexual politics: is equality taken for granted or still only partially achieved?
c. In particular, what has happened to the hopes of equality with men in the couple-bond: have men proved willing to share both work and love in a domestic context?
d. If they have not, what might the reasons be, and where do we go from here?
To return to Beauvoir: Is it as true it was sixty years ago that ‘The word love has a completely different meaning for the two sexes, and this is one source of the serious misunderstandings that divide them’?..."
Sunday 26 October 2008
Equal education and opportunity:
EMAIL FIVE, JOANNA TO KIRSTY
Picking up on your point, Kirsty, about equal education and opportunity, I think you’re right, this is a cause for optimism! Women do expect more. But despite there being so many women now in higher education, the vast majority of top positions of public authority are still held by men. I think that’s in part because career ambitious young women are still disproportionately responsible for childcare and domestic work, because, as I said before, “it’s natural”. Therefore, women who choose not to follow this pattern, so-called “career women”, (there’s no such term as a career-man”) are often made to feel guilty about their choices.
Additional solutions to 24-hour childcare (which could show the interrelation of class and gender - middle class parents leaving their children in the care of working class women? – maybe, I don’t know) would be more flexible work patterns for both parents, and models of fatherhood that promote more active roles for men in childcare. Hopefully this could go some way towards beginning to deconstruct the view that women are naturally better at and responsible for mothering tasks. There’s still a long way to go on this – obviously this week Mandelson’s attempts to halt flexible work reforms have emerged, and how often do you see baby-changing rooms in men’s toilets?
I think there’s plenty of interesting psychoanalytical theories, Dorothy Dinnerstein, Nancy Chodorow etc., about the benefits for children and men of alternative, nurturing models of fatherhood. But you’ll be better on that than me Kirsty!
Picking up on your point, Kirsty, about equal education and opportunity, I think you’re right, this is a cause for optimism! Women do expect more. But despite there being so many women now in higher education, the vast majority of top positions of public authority are still held by men. I think that’s in part because career ambitious young women are still disproportionately responsible for childcare and domestic work, because, as I said before, “it’s natural”. Therefore, women who choose not to follow this pattern, so-called “career women”, (there’s no such term as a career-man”) are often made to feel guilty about their choices.
Additional solutions to 24-hour childcare (which could show the interrelation of class and gender - middle class parents leaving their children in the care of working class women? – maybe, I don’t know) would be more flexible work patterns for both parents, and models of fatherhood that promote more active roles for men in childcare. Hopefully this could go some way towards beginning to deconstruct the view that women are naturally better at and responsible for mothering tasks. There’s still a long way to go on this – obviously this week Mandelson’s attempts to halt flexible work reforms have emerged, and how often do you see baby-changing rooms in men’s toilets?
I think there’s plenty of interesting psychoanalytical theories, Dorothy Dinnerstein, Nancy Chodorow etc., about the benefits for children and men of alternative, nurturing models of fatherhood. But you’ll be better on that than me Kirsty!
Saturday 25 October 2008
EMAIL FOUR, KIRSTY TO JOANNA
Hi Joanna,
The article about Sheila Rowbotham in the Guardian on 22.10.08 reminded me about the "four still hugely relevant demands of the movement: equal pay; equal education and opportunity; 24-hour nurseries; free contraception and abortion on demand.
I have been pondering my lapse of memory in the previous email and agree with Sheila that what has happened in reality since the 1970s is "in some ways much more than we imagined and, in some ways, very much less." I am struck by the collapse of apparently straightforward idealism. The trouble with equal pay is that comparisons were, and still are, often made by those with traditional patriarchal attitudes. Society itself regards merchant bankers until very recently as apparently worth eye-watering sums of money, whilst those involved in child care are still as badly paid as in the 70s. Yet, does monetary reward bring happiness? Not necessarily. On the other hand, thousands of people desperately need more money for the basic necessities of life. Legislation on equal pay was an important first move on this topic but improvements iin the lot of women in the face of the rampant capitalism of recent years have often been few and far between.
24-hour nurseries - would we want them? What about the growth of the nanny state?
Equal education and opportunity. I went to a cousin's funeral this week. I was struck by the fact that most of the women who attended the funeral had not progressed beyond O levels at school. Many were in low-paid, dissatisfying jobs. Here I think there is some cause for optimism, for real change crucially in the expectations made of women have taken place.
Free contraception and abortion on demand are again, relatively speaking, success stories, although the recent stories in the news about the position of women in Northern Ireland, makes us realise that there is still much to be done and that these are rights that many women in diverse countries of the world still have to fight for.
So Kirsty, I find myself thinking, why did you have that lapse of memory? Perhaps it is something to do with the concreteness of these demands. Women are still brought differently from men with damaging results. My interest in psychoanalysis postdates my interest in feminism. Lapses of memory are rarely, if ever, accidental.
Over to you again Joanna!
Love Kirsty
Hi Joanna,
The article about Sheila Rowbotham in the Guardian on 22.10.08 reminded me about the "four still hugely relevant demands of the movement: equal pay; equal education and opportunity; 24-hour nurseries; free contraception and abortion on demand.
I have been pondering my lapse of memory in the previous email and agree with Sheila that what has happened in reality since the 1970s is "in some ways much more than we imagined and, in some ways, very much less." I am struck by the collapse of apparently straightforward idealism. The trouble with equal pay is that comparisons were, and still are, often made by those with traditional patriarchal attitudes. Society itself regards merchant bankers until very recently as apparently worth eye-watering sums of money, whilst those involved in child care are still as badly paid as in the 70s. Yet, does monetary reward bring happiness? Not necessarily. On the other hand, thousands of people desperately need more money for the basic necessities of life. Legislation on equal pay was an important first move on this topic but improvements iin the lot of women in the face of the rampant capitalism of recent years have often been few and far between.
24-hour nurseries - would we want them? What about the growth of the nanny state?
Equal education and opportunity. I went to a cousin's funeral this week. I was struck by the fact that most of the women who attended the funeral had not progressed beyond O levels at school. Many were in low-paid, dissatisfying jobs. Here I think there is some cause for optimism, for real change crucially in the expectations made of women have taken place.
Free contraception and abortion on demand are again, relatively speaking, success stories, although the recent stories in the news about the position of women in Northern Ireland, makes us realise that there is still much to be done and that these are rights that many women in diverse countries of the world still have to fight for.
So Kirsty, I find myself thinking, why did you have that lapse of memory? Perhaps it is something to do with the concreteness of these demands. Women are still brought differently from men with damaging results. My interest in psychoanalysis postdates my interest in feminism. Lapses of memory are rarely, if ever, accidental.
Over to you again Joanna!
Love Kirsty
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