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Femen's Neocolonial Feminism: When Nudity Becomes a Uniform

Femen's Neocolonial Feminism: When Nudity Becomes a Uniform
In November 2011, Egyptian blogger Alia al-Mahdi sent shockwaves through the online Middle Eastern community after she uploaded a naked picture of herself. Al-Mahdi claimed that she was challenging Egyptian patriarchal structures in general, and the negative views of women as simple sex objects in particular. Interestingly, Egyptian self-identified liberals and secular activists were the first to disown Alia and her photo, denouncing it even before more conservative factions such as the Muslim Brotherhood did. They claimed that it was pointless, and did immense harm to the liberal/secular cause in Egypt, especially with parliamentary elections coming up. Much of the debate also centered on the issue of feminism and women’s rights. After receiving death threats, al-Mahdi and her partner Kareem Amer had to leave Egypt. In collaborating with Femen, al-Mahdi is essentially normalizing certain problematic discourses about Egyptian women. According to their website:

Femen Strikes in Tunisia – the Case of Amina Femen has struck again. After reports the Ukrainian based feminist group would be focusing its activism on locations outside of Europe, fresh controversy has erupted following events in Tunisia. In March 2013, a 19 year-old Tunisian activist by the name of Amina posted topless photographs of herself on Femen’s Facebook page. In one photo, “my body is my own and not the source of anyone’s honor” is written on her chest. Predictably, hard-line Islamists were quick to condemn Amina and suggest she be “stoned to death.” Support our work. Advertisement Rumors that Amina had been admitted to a psychiatric hospital, in the aftermath of criticism of her actions, spread like wildfire in respected Western news outlets. This fresh debate about Femen’s activities brings up several persistent issues. This was the case with Alia el Mahdy, an Egyptian feminist who held a topless protest against the Muslim Brotherhood, and can be argued to be the case with Amina as well. Reactions to Amina Conclusion

International Boulevard - The Fast-Food Feminism of the Topless Femen Blond young women stripping off their shirts to protest for...women's rights. Le Monde Diplomatique's Mona Chollet reviews the purportedly feminist protest group called the Femen, finding little evidence of feminism and a budding affinity with France's anti-Muslim right. Amina Tyler, Alia el Mahdi and other young Femen of the Arab Spring would do well to have a second look at their Ukrainian mentors, she suggests. "Covering women's bodies seems to give Muslims a sense of virility, while Westerners derive their own from uncovering them", writes Moroccan essayist Fatema Mernissi in Scheherazade Goes West. So much for the thousands of women who have the poor taste to fight for their rights while fully clothed, or to put on a show that does not conform with the dominant standards of youth, slimness, beauty and bodily firmness. If you show your boobs, I'll come back with the photographer Women: do you want to make yourselves heard? The Femen on the other hand were more pragmatic. Pop feminism

bell hooks Un article de Wikipédia, l'encyclopédie libre. Pour les articles homonymes, voir Hooks. bell hooks bell hooks en novembre 2009 Gloria Jean Watkins, connue sous son nom de plume bell hooks, née le 25 septembre 1952, est une intellectuelle, féministe, et militante des États-Unis. Nom de plume[modifier | modifier le code] Hooks a forgé son pseudonyme à partir des noms de sa mère et de sa grand-mère. Jeunesse[modifier | modifier le code] Hooks est née Gloria Jean Watkins le 25 septembre 1952 à Hopkinsville (Kentucky). L'éducation de hooks a eu lieu dans des écoles publiques soumises à la ségrégation, et elle parle de l'extrême difficulté de passer à une école d'intégration raciale, où les enseignants et les élèves étaient majoritairement blancs. Carrière[modifier | modifier le code] Hooks a commencé à enseigner en 1976 en tant que professeur d'anglais et maître de conférences en études ethniques à l'université de Californie du Sud. Influences[modifier | modifier le code] Ain't I a Woman ?

Protecting White Kids From History By Guest Contributor T.F. Charlton; originally published at Are Women Human? Content Notes: racist violence, slavery, infanticide, Japanese internment. So, this is a thing: a white parent has spent 6 months trying to get the Fairfax County,Virginia school system to ban Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved from its schools. Laura Murphy, the book-banning mom in question, has apparently also tried to get Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Joy Kogawa’s Obasan, a novel about the Canadian government’s internment of Japanese-Canadians during World War II, removed from the county curriculum. There’s so much one could say about this. Firstly: Yes, Beloved is a deeply disturbing book, no doubt about that. Kimberly Elise, Oprah Winfrey, and Thandie Newton inBeloved. I’ve read a good portion of Beloved, but have never finished it, because I was strongly advised that it wasn’t a book I wanted to read while I was pregnant (I believe my friend’s exact words were “STOP READING IT RIGHT NOW”). As Prof.

Muslimah Pride Day : la réponse des femmes musulmanes aux Femen Près de deux mois après s’être attaquées aux cloches de Notre-Dame, les Femen ont ciblé la religion musulmane en lançant, le 3 avril, un “Topless Jihad Day” à l’échelle européenne afin de soutenir Amina, Femen tunisienne ayant été “kidnappée” par ses parents. En France, les “sextrémistes”, la poitrine nue barrée de slogans provocateurs, ont brûlé un drapeau salafiste devant la Grande Mosquée de Paris. Une action-choc qui a immédiatement déclenché la polémique (comme nous le rapportions ici), mais aussi la colère de femmes musulmanes. En guise de réponse à l’action des Femen : une page Facebook assortie d’un événement, tous deux rédigés en anglais et baptisés respectivement “Muslim Women Against Femen” et “Muslimah Pride Day”. “Pourquoi vous sentez-vous fière d’être musulmane ? Pour finir, les organisatrices du mouvement suggèrent aux musulmanes de tweeter leur colère en utilisant le hashtag #MuslimahPride (fierté musulmane) voire #Femen. (“J’ai l’air opprimé selon vous?!”)

On the Nature of Gaffes | Roopika Risam Gaffe, n. an unintentional act or remark causing embarrassment to its originator; a blunder (Google) For the past 24 hours, members of the Emory community and academics on Twitter have been lighting up social media with outrage and critical conversations about remarks made by Emory University’s president in a column called “As American as … Compromise.” Writing about the cuts to Emory’s academic programs last fall, President James Wagner invokes the 3/5ths compromise as a decision necessary to “form a more perfect union.” Analogously, it seems, the Emory cuts were an imperfect compromise made to form a more perfect university. My colleague Tressie McMillan Cottom has provided thoroughgoing analysis of the problematic assumptions in Wagner’s essay. A number of other responses are worth a read as well. In political discourse, gaffes are common forms of utterance. The implications of Wagner’s column and response are sobering.

Recodifier le féminisme à partir de la « race » ? Lecture critique de Felix Boggio Ewanjé-Epée, Stella Magliani-Belkacem, Les féministes blanches et l’empire, Paris, Éditions La fabrique, 2012, 110 pages, 12 €. I – Voici un livre dangereux non parce qu’il est un livre sur les luttes féministes mais justement une critique totale de celles-ci, une critique unilatérale menant à la conclusion que seule les luttes féminines au sein des Indigènes de la République sont des luttes réelles[1]. Sans doute la situation difficile de l’édition militante contraint-elle à certains choix marketing dans les titres : il faut bien attirer le lecteur et à ce titre, Les Féministes Blanches et l’empire est-il sûrement plus efficace que, par exemple, « Le féminisme européen confronté à la contradiction coloniale », ce qui serait de toute façon un autre ouvrage, avec de tout autres auteurs, moins partisans … Les auteur-e-s, justement. Malheureusement, ce n’est pas le cas dans cet ouvrage, et du coup, ce qui aurait pu être une critique constructive et nécessaire de l’articulation entre les luttes contre les diverses oppressions devient une charge sans objet autre que le progressisme féministe en Europe et ailleurs.

Book Review | Wild Girls Wicked Words Updated: Sat, Mar 16 2013. 01 31 PM IST Wild Girls Wicked Words | Edited and translated by Lakshmi Holmström Verse on fire Every year around 8 March, the world sketches a tribute to women. A whole decade ago in Tamil Nadu, there was widespread outrage in literary circles at the publication of Kutti Revathi’s book of poems, Mulaigal (Breasts). Ah, that trusty debating strategy used by men in times of social upheaval: kerosene (see also: acid). That these women continued to write undeterred by threats says much more for their individual courage and perseverance than it does for society as a whole. Wild Girls Wicked Words, translated and edited by Holmström, ironically references the indignation of the literary establishment in Tamil Nadu. The poems are about the things you might expect—the bodies of women, the relationship of women with their lovers, their children; and about landscape, so intimately tied to the idea of poetry in Tamil literature since the earliest Sangam poetry.

Toi Mars, moi Vénus ou le contraire: Amazon.fr: Sophie Cadalen Put Your Shirts Back On, Ladies - By Naheed Mustafa The other day, I was sitting around thinking about all the women who are trying to bring real change to the world. They wade into politics; they try to change attitudes; many fight hard to change laws and customs despite the real threat of violence -- maybe even death. These are women plainly not accepted as being equal partners in the enterprise of nation-building. Yet they persevere and insist on doing the tough work. But, it occurs to me that maybe if those women had simply taken a page from Femen's how-to manual, they might have met their goals much sooner. What's that? And come on, Shirin Ebadi. Femen -- a Ukrainian group that "empowers" women through breast-focused action (Femen/feminist -- get it?) Look how well it has worked out for the young Tunisian woman who decided a topless protest was the best way to go. Let's say, for the sake of argument, Femen's point is precisely about attracting attention -- using women's bodies as a way to sell an idea (how novel). Look, I get it.

L'homme hétéro est un connard dominateur : Merci à Sensuelle pour ses explications. Viens un peu par ici, toi la meuf hétérosexuelle. Tu aimes les garçons ? Oui ? Tu les aimes vraiment ? Et toi, le mec hétéro, ramène aussi tes fesses… Oui, approche, ça ne mord pas. Tout le monde est bien assis ? Bon, la meuf, là je m’adresse à toi. Quant à toi, le mec, disons que même si certains clichés ont la vie dure, tu as bien pigé que les hommes ne viennent pas plus de Mars que les femmes de Vénus. Enfin non, pas tout à fait. Mais reprenons les choses : Sensuelle, comment te dire… Sensuelle, c’est un peu l’itinéraire d’une dégringolade éditoriale. Et voilà que Sensuelle me décrit l’homme, l’homme dans toute sa splendeur : tout au long de ce dernier numéro absolument exceptionnel, je fais connaissance avec un hétéro totalement stupide, crédule, dominateur, au fonctionnement cérébral binaire, et dont l’idéal féminin se résumerait ainsi : pouffe aguicheuse, bonne cuisinière, suceuse enthousiaste, et surtout, sexuellement libérée mais presque vierge. Preuves en citations… Voilà, mec.

Susan Faludi: How Shulamith Firestone Shaped Feminism When Shulamith Firestone’s body was found late last August, in her studio apartment on the fifth floor of a tenement walkup on East Tenth Street, she had been dead for some days. She was sixty-seven, and she had battled schizophrenia for decades, surviving on public assistance. There was no food in the apartment, and one theory is that Firestone starved, though no autopsy was conducted, by preference of her Orthodox Jewish family. Such a solitary demise would have been unimaginable to anyone who knew Firestone in the late nineteen-sixties, when she was at the epicenter of the radical-feminist movement, surrounded by some of the same women who, a month after her death, gathered in St. The memorial service verged on radical-feminist revival. She could not read. Clearly, something terrible had happened to Firestone, but it was not her despair alone that led Millett to choose this passage. Few were as radical, or as audacious, as Shulamith Firestone. The chairman skipped over it.

« 70 conseils pour trouver l’homme de notre vie… » : connasses vénales et crétins priapiques, le monde selon le magazine « Sensuelle » Pour le gros dossier de son 31ème numéro, « Sensuelle » a apparemment réglé la DeLorean sur une lointaine époque, que nous pourrions situer (à la louche) entre la préhistoire et le XIXème siècle. En effet, dans l’article intitulé « 70 conseils pour trouver l’homme de notre vie », la rédactrice en chef elle-même se colle à la lourde tâche de nous remettre dans le droit chemin, nous autres créatures dégénérées, qui avons renié l’ordre Naturel des choses. Qu’est-ce que l’ordre naturel des choses, se demanderont les plus perverties d’entre nous ? C’est simple, L’ONDC peut se résumer à cette limpide affirmation : Tu es une femme, tu as donc besoin d’être protégée et dominée. Alors arrête de penser qu’hommes et femmes sont égaux. Ceci posé, Mélanie Courtois va nous aider à trouver l’homme de notre vie en faisant appel à des spécialistes spécialisés en spécialisation de trouvage-de-bite-vazy-pilonne-moi-pour-la-vie-y-a-que-ça-de-vrai-sans-toi-je-ne-suis-rien. A lire aussi :

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