Feminist Perspectives on Culture

POTLUCK PARTY IS TOMORROW WED 16TH AT 5PM!!!!

COME IF YOU CAN! ADDRESS AND DEETS ARE IN THE EMAIL!!! 

INBOX ME OR EMAIL ME IF YOU HAVE QUESTIONS!

(ALSO SEND ME YOUR FINAL PROJECTS FOR DRAGONROOT FOR PUBLISHING!)

Hey everybody who was in this class with us this semester !!! I hope your vacation is going well so far (if you have final exams....good luck)! Juliana, Jenn, Em,‎ and I were talking together last night and we thought it would be a great idea to celebrate the end of the semester together and get a little bit of community friendship going !!! So in that spirit, we want to invite everybody in class to a party at Juliana's house to have fun ! It's probably going to be a potluck but we're not sure yet. We'll update you on that.

We made a doodle to find out when we should have the party and when the biggest amount of people can come. If you feel comfortable doing so, please put your first name in the doodle form. Fill out THE BEST DAYS for you to come AND the “okay” days too (those are indicated in brackets like “(yes)” as opposed to only “yes” which indicates the BEST days for you to come). For us personally, weekends are the best option but we're open to weekdays days as well. On that ‎note YOU SHOULD ALL COME IF YOU CAN!!!!!!! 🎆🎆🎇🎉🎊🎊🎈🎈🎆

http://doodle.com/poll/rhhsvvfixse5hh3x

Please fill out the doodle and we'll confirm the date and other details in another post soon!‎

*Note: Although the party will have alcohol, it will not necessarily be an alcohol-centered party. It can also have a more get-together vibe.

-Sarah 

Thoughts?

Hello class,

My final project is a zine critiquing the work of mainstream pop artist Lana Del Rey. The reason I chose to explore her work is because she has stated in some interviews, that feminism is not an interesting concept to her. Listening to her lyrics and watching her videos, she clearly displays how not only is feminism not an interesting concept to her, but her lyrics and videos are very clearly anti-feminist. Not only does she wrap her identity around the men in her life, she does even worse by glamourizing physical and emotional abuse in relationships. This provided me with plenty of material to do a feminist analysis of her work. I realize that the zine I have created is very colorful like many of her music videos, as that was the look I was hoping to achieve. Del Rey is the embodiment of Laura Mulvey's theme of the woman being the passive object of the active male gaze, connoting to be looked at ness. Whether Del Rey is aware of this theme or not, she has certainly used being the object of the male gaze to capitalize on and to launch a successful music career. However, any artist like her should be subject to feminist analytical scrutiny, as she does nothing to advance feminism and should be criticized for capitalizing on anti-feminist values.

Research Paper/ The Oppositional Gaze

Throughout my years in women’s studies, this program has not only changed my perspective about viewing the world in a different context but has also inspired me to want to change how others view the world. Women studies has taught me a lot about feminism. Feminism was something I found irrelevant before. I was naïve and ignorant, someone who could not see the bigger picture in life. Once I got involved and familiar with women’s studies, I have been drawn to the issues and productions such as, filming, video, art, and culture as a feminist, while wanting to know more and get more involved. Bell hooks is an example of an inspiring feminist writer. After reading her chapter on the Oppositional Gaze, Black Female Spectators, I have been inspired to write about the issues bell hooks raises in her reading. Hooks analyzes the functions of race and gender in contemporary culture which reflects around social inequality. My main arguments for this paper will analyze how racism and sexism is one of the main components when talking about feminism which will be highlighted through hooks’ reading. As feminists we have fought long and hard to gain control. We have fought for equality and equal rights. That being said, this essay will assimilate bell hooks’ reading as well as integrating other essential readings in addition to the oppositional gaze. I will then analyze my own interpretation from a feminist perspective to reflect on culture and race by integrating concepts and theories from the course content.

#finalproject #researchpaper #oppositionalgaze #bellhooks

"AUDIOVISUAL BASICS WORKSHOP: How To Set Up A Video Projector, Speakers, and a mic" Avec Kandis Friesen

Studio XX

4001 rue Berri, espace 201, Montreal, Quebec H2L 4H2 FREE! Registration: [email protected] WORKSHOP I: Video (Video Sources and Video Projectors) Wednesday, January 27, 2016 | 6:00PM to 8:00PM: WORKSHOP II: Audio (Audio Sources and Microphones/Speakers) Wednesday, February 3, 2016 | 6:00PM to 8:00PM Blending practical theory, accessible language, and hands-on experience, this introductory workshop will teach participants how to set up a simple audiovisual system: a video projector, speakers, and a microphone. Geared towards cultural workers, administrators, artists, and others, participants will leave with an assertive technical vocabulary and practical experience installing and troubleshooting A/V equipment.

Unfortunately I am unable to post this as an audio file, but I hope the Dropbox link works.  For my final project, I chose to compose and perform a spoken-word piece in which I address a handful of my personal insecurities with regards to how I perceive myself as a feminist.  I have attempted to learn more about myself this past year and how I fit within the feminist agenda, and as a result, I have been faced with a slough of questions and doubts about whether or not I am a “good” feminist, or at least “good enough”.  Inspired by Cixous’ call to Write and the question of what woman has not accused herself of being a monster, this piece was composed to legitimize and combat these inner struggles by forcing them to the surface.

For my final project, I made a zine called “How to Maintain Black Hair”.

The purpose of this zine project is targeted towards Black women who are looking for ideas and tips for maintaining their natural hair. A lot of women do not feel the need to wear their natural hair, which is completely fine. I am not here to police or shame women who do not wear their hair in its natural state. I was inspired by Americanah by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.  The gripping story is told through the eyes of Ifemelu as she moves to America due to Nigeria’s military regime.  Her move to America influenced her to write a blogpost called Raceteenth or Various Observations About American Blacks (Those Formerly Known As Negroes) by a Non- American Black and these blog posts are intertwined into the main body of the text. The book focuses on emigration, immigration, race, the politics of hair and interracial relationships.

By: SARAH

Cramping Mah Style is an online feminist art exhibition that explores the uterus and vagina from the perspective of someone who has painful periods every month and who doesn’t like most kinds of penetration. In conversation with Carolee Schneemann's "Inner Scroll," and to a lesser extent, Magenta Baribeau's Maman? Non Merci!, my work explores the vagina, the uterus, and the vulva, or to be more specific, my vagina, my uterus, and my vulva, in ways that I feel are at times unacceptable to express within feminist circles. My work sometimes depicts penetration as disgusting or scary, because that's where I'm at in my process of learning to be comfortable with my body. Similarly, some of my other works depict periods as violent and aggressive, because that's how my period feels to me sometimes. I want to make it clear that I'm not advocating for people to be disgusted with their bodies or periods, but merely voicing my reality, merely saying that sometimes, when I sit in on feminist community events, I'm frustrated that the body, and more specifically the uterus, is mystified and uncritically celebrated. I want there to be space to express discomfort with one's body or with sex without being labeled as body-shaming or sex-shaming, so that people, like me, who still struggle with total body image, who are uncomfortable with things like penetration sometimes, and who cannot, and will not ever be able to embrace periods beyond the point of agreeing that they should not be taboo have a space to speak. Because sometimes it is so hard to not be allowed to openly critique something that causes you so much pain, and that is, for now, incurable. But again, this is all coming from the person who interviewed you all about your periods a few weeks back! All from the person who wants to talk about periods, and make them less taboo! But I'm also the person who wants to move beyond the current popular discourse in feminist circles in Montreal, that are uncritically celebratory of period experiences, and silence those who wish to speak about their frank dislike of them (that sometimes co-exists with their appreciation of periods of course!).So all in all, I'm a little nervous about sharing this work, both because I'm afraid that the content may come to bite me in the uterus ass later, and because I'm nervous that despite my whole spiel, my work will simply be dismissed as some body-negative, sex-negative art, making me a "bad feminist." As you can maybe guess, the image I shared on here was the "safest" one, both in terms of risks to my workplace reputation and my feminist reputation. In it I experiment with makeup, embody the uterus, and play around with the gaze a little —  Nothing too scandalous right? 

So for now the blog all my artwork is set up on has a password. However, if you're interested in having access to it, and seeing more posts from my exhibition just comment something like "Can I have the password" or "I wanna check it out," make sure your ask box is open, and I'll most likely send you the password! Would you like to see it?

Another question to consider: If I expand this project to include other people’s work, would anyone be interested in submitting something? Of course you can still want to check the project out without wanting to participate!

Exploring the links between archiving and activist action/intervention, my final project, in conversation with The Lesbian Avengers Documentary Project, is a zine documenting and commenting on the creation of the first dyke marches in Montreal from 2012 to the present. This zine is also part of a larger project called LEARNING HOW TO SCREAM, an activist and archival project which by its focus on lesbian lives, theory and activism aims to confront lesbian history and make sense of it in contemporary contexts.

As part of this project, I will be facilitating a lecture series next semester on lesbian theory and activism. If you want to learn more about the project you can follow the project’s tumblr page (not yet updated) and to register for the lecture series you can just send an email at [email protected]

For my final project, I made a sound piece and companion poem that I put on a cassette tape. It’s called (mixtake).

There are a lot of quiet sounds, so it sounds better with headphones on (or on proper speakers).

My story ended up being about a girl biking around with the SCUM manifesto and using it as a framework for survival and the ways it was helpful and harmful to her. The story was also super influenced by Anzaldua’s Borderlands. If you want to check it out, you can read below.

- Becca

ps. tw: violence and blood