Far Right Politics and Gender blog

Sinds kort staat er nieuwe blog online die voor vele feministen best wel eens interessant zou kunnen zijn. Hoewel er in de academische wereld al redelijk veel aandacht geschonken wordt aan de wederopbloei van het extreemrechtse denken en de nationalistische politiek in Europa, blijft een expliciet feministisch, interdisciplinair perspectief op deze politieke tendens helaas vaak achterwege.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

De mensen achter de Far Right Politics and Gender blog proberen hier verandering in te brengen door dit populaire politieke discours te analyseren vanuit een gendersensitief en feministisch oogpunt. Deze informatieve blog werd opgestart om de discussies tijdens de "Gender and Far Right Politics in Europe" conferentie die in september 2012 plaatsvond, verder te kunnen zetten.

 

Eind 2013 wordt het gelijknamige boek verwacht waarin academici, journalisten en activisten hun verhaal zullen doen over deze tendens. In afwachting daarvan kunnen we alvast de blog raadplegen waarop - naast boekaankondigingen, recensies en call for papers - thema's zoals de genderspecifieke rol van vrouwen en mannen binnen Europese rechtse politieke bewegingen, de genderideologie binnen extreemrechtse partijen en de invloed van dit politieke discours op vrouwen- en LGTBQI-rechten op kritische en feministische wijze zullen behandeld worden.

 

http://genderandfarright.wordpress.com/

 

"What a Rapist Looks Like": een kritische beschouwing over ons beeld van de typische verkrachter

In een van de meest recente berichten op zijn ‘profeminist blog’, bespreekt Bill op kritische wijze de stereotypische voorstellingen die velen onder ons van verkrachters hebben. Hieronder zijn inleiding:

"The other day I was doing a rather unpleasant home remodeling project. Tired of the heat, tired of the noise, and tired of the dust, I burst out of my front door, out into the fresh air, out into the bright sunshine. And when I did this I scared the heck out of a woman who happened to be walking by on the sidewalk. She had an instant look of fear in her eyes. Immediately realizing that I had scared her, I tried smiling at her reassuringly. But still she stared at me wide-eyed as she hurried on. She did not smile back. Whoah! What the heck is her problem? I was smiling, for goodness sake! And I had absolutely no intention of harming that woman. How could she not know that? Hell, I don’t even look like a rapist! Heck, I was even smiling!

What a rapist looks like. Let’s face it, I do not look like what the world often thinks of when we think about the sort of guy who rapes women. After all, I am -- and I’ll just say it -- white. I am clean cut. The house I am working on is in a “nice” neighbourhood. I have a professional job. I am married. I have a kid. And I’m a relatively attractive guy. [...]

So why in the world would this woman who was walking by ever have a reason to be scared of me?

Well, it turns out that in the real world -- rather than in our stereotypical rape scenario -- it is exactly guys like me who rape, who assault, who harass, and who molest. All the damn time. And the sooner we get that fact through our thick heads, the sooner we can make some progress on confronting the epidemic of rape, and the safer we will all be.

Voor de rest van het bericht, klik hier.

A little feminist blog on language

Onlangs stuitte ik op A little feminist blog on language, waar een pas afgestudeerde masterstudente haar enthousiasme met betrekking tot feministische linguistiek deelt via  blogposts over taal en gender. Hieronder het eerste deel van haar blogpost “How to disregard a women (explorer)”:

"Ever since their first discovery, the polar regions have fascinated humanity. The endless frozen deserts, the blinding snowy white, and the few animals which make this inhospitable climate their home can best be described by one term in particular: extreme. And the ‘extreme’ hardly attracts the tame.

[links: Amelia Hempleman-Adams, 'The Frozen Beauty']

Looking at our traditionally fixed gender roles, it comes as no surprise that the exploration of the Arctic and Antarctic has until recently been the sole preserve of men. Men, according to dominant ideology, are on the mere basis of their sex daring, brave and adventurous, that is, ‘made’ for exploration, while women, on the mere basis of theirs, are meek, fearful and cautious, that is, ‘made’ to stay at home. However, many women have challenged this restrictive stereotype throughout history and continue to challenge it to this day.

Some of our contemporary female explorers are gaining public recognition and have recently appeared in a feature in the Evening Standard to mark their success. But as the title indicates, their achievements do not solely revolve around polar exploration: “Meet the polar babes” (Evening Standard 2011). As the definition shows, a ‘babe’ is both an infantile human: as in “a baby”, and the object of/to man: as in “a sexually attractive young woman” (OD 2012), which fundamentally skews our understanding of female explorers towards their ‘essential’ ineptness as well as their ‘essential’ position within humankind."
 

Klik  hier om de rest van het artikel te lezen. Ook zeer interessant zijn haar berichten “Question of choice”  en “Show me yours”.