Freerange #10, 'the womens issue'....
Hey everyone,
Jessie Moss is leading the development of Freerange Vol.10. We are using this loomio conversation to work out a direction for the edition, which is going to be a feminist/womens issues edition. Freerange journal is the flagship of the Cooperative small publishing cooperative. Visit www.projectfreerange.com for more information. All previous 7 (8 and 9 are in development) can be downloaded for free from that site.
Jessie Says: "What kind of direction/content would you like to see in Freerange #10? I haven't come up with a name or brief for it yet, and wanting to develop this really well. It's going to be a feminist issue.
My thoughts so far are to focus on the very recent past, and present in terms of where feminism is today/over the last 10 years. What is new, what has changed? How has technology influenced women's and young people's lives...changes in laws such as marriage acts around the world etc....access to the internet like never before...all these issues.
Fire away people, any ideas or thoughts welcome.
Jessie Moss"
Paula van Beek Fri 9 May 2014 7:08AM
Just wanted to add to the conversation around women as role models -
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2014/05/08/comment-why-do-our-women-entertainers-need-be-feminists
and separate out the diffrence between an idea of a feminist issue - vs. a women's issues edition as I feel these are two separate topics. From the discussion so far it sounds like feminism as a curatorial interest is winning out.
So yes it would be great to have a diverse range of voices and experiences heard from all genders.
Some great feminist art / activism is happening in Melbourne, such as Knit Your Revolt! Revolutionary Knitting Force and Craft Cartel lead by artist Casey Sh.
and I've just lead a selfie project for young women - Me, My Selfie & I, creating self empowered portraits - so I could put you in touch with some younger voices around that.
totally happy if you want to keep it Aotearoa focused - just some offers from over the ditch.
and in terms of interesting diverse women to interview check out Gentiane Lupi - actor, mother, Muay Thai fighter champion.
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/sport/9766871/From-housewife-to-Muay-Thai-boxer
You can ask her if she is a feminist!
Emma Johnson Sat 10 May 2014 1:39AM
What about ‘I am not a feminist’…seems to be a current statement, heard often… It seems the more people argue against it, the more they prove it exists. The idea of feminism providing equality and supposed freedom, yet is simultaneously binding....
Control and surveillance as frame is interesting… This also opens up language and semantics - the use of language to maintain structures of control/authority. While language itself isn't innately sexist, they way it is used can be. I think it is problematic to go to war on words (like the whole bossy campaign etc.) - this is impoverishing of imagination. Who ‘owns’ these words? Can words be reclaimed? How these are used is interesting to examine….
My sweetheart drew my attention to one in country music. One of the Carters infamously said ‘I am here to put the cunt back in country’. Powerful statement (one that was regretted by her) on many levels, which lead to Hank William III saying some years later he was here to put the ‘dick back in Dixie’. What had happened in the interim?
How much of it is about gender (physical and cultural)? Paradigms of masculinity are as much at play as femininity. What does it mean to be a man or a woman? I think of the Prodigy video Slap My Bitch Up. Filmed from the perspective of the protagonist, it takes us through a night out of drugs, hard-drinking, vomiting, fights, harassing women, sex – yet the final frame reveals it was a woman the whole time….
And then sexism – how is this different from other forms of oppression and injustice? Is it because one person is or appears to be a woman?
Then what of the Third Sex and legal status being conferred to those who identify as neither man nor woman but other?
Sarah Jane Parton Sat 17 May 2014 5:32AM
I just really want to second everything that Jacqui Moyes Stewart suggested. A local focus would be great.
Sarah Jane Parton Sat 17 May 2014 5:42AM
Things I'd like to see/would pick up the mag if it featured: a beautifully designed (cos I'm a sucker for a good aesthetic decision or two) timeline of the history of feminism in Aotearoa; a frank interview with second and third wave feminists about this history; a focus on mana wahine; something about parenting; something about rape culture... Could focusing on 'Feminism in contemporary Aotearoa' be a specific enough kaupapa for #9?
Things I'm personally less interested in: men as feminists, men's stories, men (in this context, I mean!). Men who are feminists will happily step aside so that women's stories can be centralised here.
[email protected] Sat 17 May 2014 6:36AM
Freerange is designed to break its own rules, but it has traditionally had an international audience and featured writers from all over the place (london, new york, delhi, aus, san fran etc). So while I wouldn't want to shut down anything, it is something to keep in mind.
[email protected] · Thu 1 May 2014 8:35AM
Another article about why feminism has saved men: "We have redefined feminism as women’s right to be owned by the system, to be owned as much as men have been owned. Women have led the charge to join men in the enclosure. Women pride themselves now on a future where, if Mundy’s predictions prove true, they will be the leading inmates. Some sweet freedom. No wonder men don’t want to follow. They’re already there."
http://thebaffler.com/past/feminism_for_them