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Blog
Fethiye Çetin spoke alongside a stellar cast, including Ma Jian, August Kleinzahler and Amanda Lohrey, at yesterday's Poetry of Rebellion session at the Melbourne Writers Festival.
Each reader gave their own take on the theme of rebellion, with offerings from poets as diverse as AA Milne, Blaise Cendrars and Sydney-sider Joanne Burns.
Fethiye read poems on war and injustice, fear, violence and denial - topics that fill her moving memoir, My Grandmother and her work as a human rights lawyer. This was her statement:
"Ceylan Önkol was only 13 when she was killed by a mortar thrown from the military battalion at a rural area of Lice county of Diyarbakir city, while she was shepherding. Her mother, while collecting the pieces that were left from her body to her lap, was crying and yelling in pain: 'What did she do to whom?'.
U'ur Kaymaz was only 12 when he was killed in front of his home in Kiziltepe district of Mardin city, by the security forces of the state. Thirteen state bullets were removed from his corpse.
I chose this peom of Ece Ayhan as it reminds me of Ceylan Önkol's eyes, the flung out thongs of U'ur Kaymaz as he was being shot by the state's bullets, of our vulgarity, of our children that we commit to memorise the death before they even begin to spell the life, and that it reminds us of our shame.
I chose Kemal Özer's poem as it evokes to revolt against injustice and awakens hopes."
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Melinda Tankard Reist on the DJs lawsuit and designer Alannah Hill's response.
When a woman makes a joke about sexual harassment and claims she wishes she had been "touched up" by the man at the centre of harassment claims, you see just how entrenched is the idea that harassment is just a bit of fun and that women really want it.
When that woman is leading fashion designer Alannah Hill and she’s making the comments at a fashion show to parade the works of a major department store facing a massive sexual harassment claim, then you see just how far we have to go.
Two days ago, former DJs publicist Kristy Fraser-Kirk launched a record claim against former chief executive Mark McInnes and the company. She alleged McInnes made repeated and unwelcome sexual advances towards her. McInnes resigned mid June and admitted behaving as a manner “unbecoming of a chief executive”.
According to The Australian, three victims of alleged sexual misconduct referred to in Kristy Fraser-Kirks legal action have resolved their claims and still work for the department store.
"I wish he’d touched me up"
Only a day after lodgement of Fraser-Kirk’s claim, Alannah Hill leapt to McInnes’ defence at the launch of DJs spring/summer 2010/11 collection. She said she had always had a crush on him, that she wished he had touched her up, wished he had invited her to his Bondi apartment, and that she threw herself at him, but he resisted.
She claimed to be the brunette McInnes told Fraser-Kirk he could have had, but rejected because he wanted her instead. She described the case as a “glitch”.
But it’s not the first time Hill has gone to McInnes’ defense. In June she told the Daily Telegraph she was “devastated” Mr McInnes had been forced to resign.
“It’s a total overreaction. It seems such a shame that this incident has brought him down,” she said.
“I had utter respect for him and I liked that he liked women.”
I commented on the issue on Sunrise and The Morning Show (included both because I was more awake in the second one. Some readers might also like to see Alex Perry appear with me on Sunrise, given I’ve had a little bit to say about him recently).
I argued that the comments trivialised sexual harassment and provided permission to those in the community to view women as up for grabs in the workplace. And while Perry tried to argue that David Jones was made up of many people, the fact that Mark McInnes was the Chief Executive Officer (and not the teaboy), is significant. The rot starts at the top.
Now She’s Sorry
Hill has now apologised on Melbourne radio, though I don’t think she’s got the tone quite right:
“I’m here with a priest, I’m on my knees and I’m doing my confession,” she told Melbourne’s Fox FM.
“I’m so gutted … I feel like such an idiot.
“Look, I know they are really serious allegations and I’ve never really worked in the corporate sector, and I understand sexual harassment would be unbearable.
“I know people get so stressed they can’t even go to work. I feel terrible for that girl and I feel stupid for myself and I really, really humbly apologise.”
Hill said her business partner was “so furious” about her comments that she would hold a “sorry sale” on Saturday, and donate half the proceeds “to some sort of a women’s shelter or sexual abuse (charity)”.
Asked what she would do with the other half of the funds, she said: “I might pass them on to the nice girl with the hyphen in her name. I’ve forgotten her name.”
The girl with the hyphen in her name (and I acknowledge the claims have to be proven) reminds us that sexual harassment is unlawful. Sexual harassment contributes to a hostile working environment. I’ve written about this before.
See also:
Why didn’t the DJs board act against McInnes Sooner? Amanda Gome in Crikey.
Clive Hamilton’s opinion piece on the DJ’s case.
This blogpost originally appeared on Melinda's site.
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Far be it from me to be overly optimistic, and sometimes being a feminist means being cranky at cranky-making stuff out there, but it does seem that the F word is making a comeback of sorts – or perhaps it never really went away, it was just drowned out by bad press!
Obviously working at a feminist press and having a degree in women’s studies, I’m attuned to “women’s talk”, but everywhere I turn at the moment the words “feminism” and “gender” are being widely used. And not just at events like the one to celebrate the brilliant essay, Temple of The Female Eunuch: Germaine Greer Forty Years On, by Monica Dux in Kill Your Darlings (in response to the cranky-making essay by Louis Nowra in The Monthly) or in a phone call to the wonderful Women’s Bookshop in Auckland, whose owner Carol says she’s spoilt for choice at the moment.
In the letters pages and opinion columns of the paper; on TV shows as distantly removed as The Circle to Q&A. In writers festival and film festival programs. In books and essays. From an acquaintance who’s part of a “women’s group” and on the tram. Not to mention as the buzzword of Election 2010 here in Australia. But more of that in a minute.
And I’m not the only one feeling positive. Author Emily Maguire commented on Radio National’s Book Show yesterday that she doesn’t brook the question “What’s wrong with feminism?”, countering that she sees feminism in all aspects of life: “There isn’t just one monolithic movement, but it’s out there everywhere…”.
So have the feminists taken over? With a new female PM it kind of feels like it. Not that there’s a sudden flurry of feminist legislation or the like, but certainly a sense of “It’s (about) time”. The “gender agenda” is being questioned in the campaign, and despite attempts to sledge using the F word (Julie Bishop on Julia Gillard “coming from a background of a left-wing feminist”) the general consensus seems to be that it’s about the policies not the sex of the candidates that really matters.
Despite real, cranky-making stats about women’s participation in industry and pay inequity etc, there are plenty of strong, feminist women in our businesses, unis, schools and media, so it makes sense that “feminism is everywhere”. Let’s hope we can see this as a strength in our politicians and leaders. That strong, intelligent women are seen as critical to a strong, intelligent society.
But back to the fun stuff. It’s gatherings of women using the word feminism as a means of coming together that excites me. I don’t think this would have happened a decade ago, when the F word seemed stigmatised, deemed bad, at least in polite company. Two great new Melbourne initiatives are Cherchez la femme and Women of Letters. The first, a salon, with the emphasis on women and the issues of the day. In a pub, fun! The second, a monthly forum which “brings together Melbourne’s best and brightest writers, musicians, politicians and comedians in celebration of the beautiful lost art of letter-writing”. So popular is it that tickets sell out within days and a bigger venue is being sought.
And these gatherings are not just full of lefty 30-somethings weaned onto feminism at the breast of Greer, there are loads of younger women, happy to grab onto the label or not, but all up for a good yarn, interested in power, strength, intelligence and, even, humour. So it seems feminism is thriving in multitudinous and multifarious ways and that women (and men) of all ages are getting into the mix.
Kate Jennings concurred at a recent talk in Melbourne, saying she has hope for future generations and that “every generation comes to feminism in their own way”. She even joked about the “pepto-bismal pink” she sees little girls dressed in left, right and centre, predicting a backlash: “they’re the radical feminists of tomorrow!”.
So with all this positivity, I’m somewhat bemused by the upcoming IQ2/Wheeler Centre debate entitled, “Feminism Has Failed”. Ok I realise debates need to be oppositional, yet this premise seems overly negative. But it’s the line-up that mystifies me most. I won’t name names, but take a look and draw your own conclusions. There is however one place remaining, so my recommendation: email the organisers with your suggestions of who you’d like to see on stage!
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Watching the ABC’s Four Corners programme, Heart of Darkness last night I was struck by the fact that this massive level of rape going on in the Democratic Republic of Congo is really a civil war against women. The DRC has been continuously exploited as a nation for its mineral wealth by Western countries and the minerals that make our mobile phones vibrate are just the latest theft of wealth (background reading on the Congo).
The DRC is not alone in its high levels of rape against women. In Nigeria women fear to use the communal toilets because they fear sexual assault. And what about our own countries where despite laws on the books against rape, it is a crime that occurs daily?
The UN is ineffective. They have reduced the word rape to a bureaucratic acronym that makes you feel nothing: GBSV. I’ve had many a friend scratch their head wondering what this might be short for. Amnesty has put out many press releases about violence against women all around the world. Still nothing happens.
In the meantime, pornography is sold on street corners and in milk bars and petrol stations. Girls and women are increasingly sexualised. So-called progressive males keep up their call for an end to censorship so they can get their rocks off. They call for legalisation of prostitution so women can be legally sold a hundred years after the end of slavery.
And that acronym: gender based sexual violence. Let’s call it for what it is. A perfectly good and understandable four-letter word: RAPE. It is violence against women. It is a war against women. On every level of civil society: between nations, within nations, within communities and families – it is a civil war against women.
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Spinifex intern Kate Page wonders how much nuptial equality and inclusion we
can really take
As a socially progressive heterosexual single mum (with lots of relatives touting a step- prefix), I say: let’s shake the heterosexual foundations of marriage. And yes, I deliberately leave out any religious affiliation, because let's face it, 60% of us choose not to marry within religious institutions these days, so the religious argument must be dead and buried. Julia Gillard would surely agree, being of no specified religion, and yet, her stance is aligned with that of her predecessor Kevin Rudd.
Julia and the Party have opposed same-sex marriage and in doing so promote a culture of marginalisation around this issue. This is a human rights issue and one of legal and economic equality. This is an issue of personal autonomy and the right to choose. Sixty percent of Australians support same-sex marriage. A recent senate enquiry received 11,000 submissions in support of same-sex marriage (the largest number ever received in a senate enquiry) yet our two major parties are refusing to listen.
By staying where we are on this issue, we are effectively saying that the quality of committed relationships and the quality of love relationships between same-sex couples is lesser than that of the heterosexual community.
I stumbled upon an article that opposed same-sex marriage and reprimanded proponents for using “rhetoric”, like “inclusion”, “tolerance” and “equality” when forming their argument. If you laugh in a confused kind of way here, I am laughing with you. I wonder how many articles in support of same-sex marriage this writer would have needed to read before these three words stood out? Living in Australia, in a democracy, inclusion, tolerance and equality should be for everyone. Yes, I am stating the obvious. And it does seem out-of-date to be grappling with this issue today.
Personally I hold great optimism that we will legalise same-sex marriage before too much longer. The argument against carries little weight and quite simply, is not aligned with the views of the majority of Australians.
Mexico City recently legalised same-sex marriage and in the four months since the bill was passed, 271 same-sex couples got hitched. (That is two or more weddings per day.) A gay friend of mine is looking forward to Australia legalising same-sex marriage. She says, “it’ll be a busy year of weddings for me”. Let's hope when it does happen we don’t overwhelm ourselves with too much tolerance, inclusion and equality!
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Out Now
 In the cold winter of 1875, two rebellious spirits travel from the pale sunlight of England to the raw heat of Australia....  Beautifully written by First Nations women on Gurindji country where the fight for equal wages began. This book...  I am seen by many as a danger. As having failed to understand the new rules, the new paradigm of successful motherhood.
 NEW EDITION
The women in this book may be among the last to have babies without the medical stamp of approval.
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