Monday, May 13, 2013
The power that Italian women wield on the home front seems to be the coiled serpent lying at the base of Italy’s spine, a kind of glorious kundalini goddess who need only awaken herself to her own manifest potential; the choice to use her formidable and loving influence in raising responsible, sensitive and aware men—ever-mindful of their future roles as husbands and fathers—is surely the obvious step toward the kind of feminism that perhaps makes more cultural sense in Italy. Of course, this means relinquishing a certain amount of traditional female control and the kind of co-dependency that it so often fosters; when mamma bear teaches her cub survival skills, it eventually goes off on its own into the wild to fend for itself. It probably won’t come back and live with her until it’s 40. Very interesting hypothesis from part two of Elizabeth Petrosian’s incredibly thoughtful appraisal of Italian womanhood, The skin they’re in: the uneasy paradox of Italian women.
Friday, May 10, 2013
I’d prefer my lunch without the sexually objectifying images thanks #everydaysexism (at Edi house)

I’d prefer my lunch without the sexually objectifying images thanks #everydaysexism (at Edi house)

When you grow up as a girl, the world tells you the things that you are supposed to be: emotional, loving, beautiful, wanted. And then when you are those things, the world tells you they are inferior: illogical, weak, vain, empty. The world teaches you that the way you exist in it is disgusting — you watch boys cringe backward in your dorm room when you talk about your period, blue water pretending to be blood in a maxi pad commercial. It is little things, and it is constant. In a food court in a mall, after you go to the gynecologist for the first time, you and your friend talk about how much it hurts, and over her shoulder you watch two boys your age turn to look at you and wrinkle their noses: the reality of your life is impolite to talk about. The world says that you don’t have a right to the space you occupy, any place with men in it is not yours, you and your body exist only as far as what men want to do with it. At fifteen, you find fifteen-year-old boys you have never met somehow believe you should bend your body to their will. At almost thirty, you find fifteen-year-old boys you have never met still somehow believe you should bend your body to their will. They are children. They are children. Stevie Nicks (via actias)

(Source: whisperingwordsofwisdom)

Thursday, May 2, 2013

[Self-portraits by Carrie Mae Weems, Käthe Kollwitz, Judy Baca, and Frida Kahlo, text “Never apologize for selfies”]

(Source: gorgonetta)

Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Meet Cécile Kyenge: Italy’s First Black Government Minister

How much do I love the fact that Italy’s first-ever minister of colour is a woman?

A LOT.

Cécile Kyenge was born in Kambove, Congo and was elected Italy’s Minister of Integration on April 28, 2013 as part of Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s new government. Kyenge is an ophthalmologist and married mother of two who lives in Castelfranco Emilia, near Modena.

Interestingly, she doesn’t like being called a “woman of colour”: 

I don’t think it’s the right expression. Either you say what colour my skin is or, better, you say my country of origin, or at least that I am of “foreign origin.” In my case you should say Italo-Congolese, just like you say Italo-American or Anglo-French…It better describes the person you’re talking about and, most importantly, implies the belonging to two places, the double identity.

In fact, to combat racism, she believes it’s important to focus on language:

Kyenge says that the words that bother her most are “negro,” which today is “a pejorative, derogatory term. Originally it meant something quite different, but now it’s disturbing.” Equally unacceptable is “vu’ cumprà” [an imitation of how African street-sellers pronounce “vuoi comprare” or “do you want to buy”], as is “ ‘extracomunitario’ [meaning non-EU immigrant, but generally only used to refer to Africans], now invariably used as synonymous with ‘foreigner.’ We can fight discrimination by using the right words.”

(From here.)

Change: it is happening!

 

 

Monday, April 8, 2013

(Source: theongrayjoy)

Wednesday, April 3, 2013 Thursday, March 28, 2013
There is a great tendency in us to see the desire to reach our potential as being in opposition to mothering. You can either be finding yourself and achieving your goals or you can be nurturing children. In this false binary either a woman’s energy is for herself or her baby, but in reality our lives and loves are more complicated than this. For me personally, many a time these drives have been in conflict, but in many more instances self-actualisation has included motherhood. When, in this world, we eventually come to value caring work more fully, we will understand that caring for others is also a form of caring for ourselves. Men and women, both, will find that it is one of our more profound drives as human beings, to have love and meaning in caring relationships. From What’s Missing from the Retro Wife Debate by my idol Andie Fox aka blue milk at Daily Life.