Tatyana Fazlalizadeh- Post 5

Simona Borkina

            Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, a 31-year-old artist, activist, and freelance illustrator started the poster campaign “Stop Telling Women To Smile” in 2012. Tatyana began this project in order to address the problem of street harassment and cat calling in a public manner, something that she has frequently experienced. Each of her posters include a portrait of a woman, along with captions that she took from interviewing women who have experienced street harassment. Tatyana’s approach to combating street harassment is unlike anything else I have seen. Rather than writing books and essays, she went straight to the source- the streets. Through art and her creative mind she has been able to garner a following of people who are moved by her work. Here are just a few of her posters:

            With the recent election, it is very clear that our country is divided and Tatyana used her creative intelligence to address the misogynistic, xenophobic, and racist rhetoric that was uttered by the Trump administration. She challenged the dominating white supremacy ideas in the red Republican state of Oklahoma and of the president-elect’s campaign.

"America is black. It is Native. It wears a hijab. It is a Spanish speaking tongue. It is migrant. It is a woman. It is here. Has been here. And it’s not going anywhere."

            The importance of Tatyana’s work is that she takes women’s voices, experiences, and faces, and creates a daring statement in public spaces where they at times may feel the most unsafe and uncomfortable. Living in New York City all my life, and being exposed to street harassment, The Stop Telling Women To Smile campaign has really empowered me. If I were to walk outside and see one of Tatyana’s posters, I would feel extremely empowered. Fortunately, a successful kick-starter campaign has allowed her to meet and draw more women from all around the country (Baltimore, Boston, Atlanta, and others). 

           This video does a spectacular job at highlighting Tatyana’s vision for the STWTS campaign as well as how she acquires the inspiration for each of her posters. I hope to stumble upon some of her work while strolling the streets of NYC.

Harassing Women Does Not Prove Your Masculinity

My Worth Extends Far Beyond My Body

 

Men Do Not Own The Streets || You Are Not Entitled To My Body

 Resources:
Tatyana's Campaign Summary 
Stop Telling Women To Smile Video
Tatyana's Campaign Website
Street Artist Delivers Powerful Message To White America

Public Art Project Addresses Gender-Based Street Harassment In A Big Way
An Artist Demands Civility on the Street With Grit and Buckets of Paste  

Post 5- Ashley Roth

Ashley Roth

Professor Cacoilo

Media 384

Post 5

                                                Anne Fontaine: Film Maker/ Screen Writer

Anne Fontaine is truly an inspiration for women to know that they can triumph over any obstacle without the help of men. 

http://forward.com/the-assimilator/343510/interview-with-anne-fontaine-director-of-the-innocents/

I don’t remember seeing any movie that had at least two women in a conversation between each other and not speaking about a man or men.  The Bechdel Test allows everyone the opportunity to learn if a film passes this basic requirement.  The Bechdel Test has three basic requirements which are: a. Including at least two women, b. having at least one conversation with each other and the topic is not about a man or men. I started to research about films that would meet this requirement and I was curious to see if the film director/screenwriter would also be a woman. My research led me to learn about Anne Fontaine whose occupation was in the cinema as a comedienne.  Anne Fontaine is a French director who directed the films “Coco Before Chanel’, “Gemma Bovary” and “The Innocents”. Her films are based on her Feminist viewpoints and these movies pass The Bechdel Test with flying colors.  Fontaine was uncomfortable in cinema since “She felt trapped by its gaze”.  She realized that she had an interest in the “actors, their game, their text, their role” and she wanted to change the dynamics of films”. She wrote and directed her first film, “Les Histoires de’amour Finissent Mal En General”.  What I found amazing about her was that she did not have a degree in film making or any technical experience.  She proves that “technique or references were of little importance” when directing a film.  Anne Fontaine is a free thinker, a Feminist, who wanted to make a difference for women in cinema.  She directs films that show women with different issues, obstacles they face in their lives, and she allows the freedom of expression through women’s points of view. Since Fontaine was in cinema, she knew about the Patriarchal, chauvinistic male directors whose goal was to portray women as ‘objects’ for the ‘Male Gaze’.  Male directors were not interested in showing women as being independent, self- reliant or educated.  Anne Fontaine wanted to change the way films depict women.  She was at first fearful to direct and write her first film but she took on the challenge and she was chosen for the Critics’ Week of Cannes in 1993.

Fontaine’s film “The Innocents (Les Innocentes) it is not a typical war story.  It is a true story about nuns who were savagely raped by Soviet soldiers at the end of WWII.  Some of the nuns become pregnant and must come to terms about rape, childbirth, and their faith.  It is a story that was kept secret because of the repercussions they feared by the Patriarchal Church. These nuns feared the Church’s Patriarchal beliefs about religion and judge their value as women where they would be judged harshly, as well as, the entire community.  These nuns were sheltered from the secular world and they feared that the male dominated Church leaders would shut down their convent and they would be ostracized. This film passes the Bechdel Test because there is a female heroine (Mathilde) and the female nuns had to travail as a team against great odds about their religious faith and trusting in someone from the secular world.  They could not confide to the Catholic Church Male leaders. As the movie moves forward, these female nuns start to reveal their bodies to Mathilde because of their pregnancies. They reveal their emotions to Mathilde despite she is an Atheist.  The cast in this film are basically a female cast and there is one man, Samuel, who does not have a major role in the film. Sister Maria “Confesses to Mathilde that she cannot find consolation and tells her how she suffers emotionally by reliving the continuous rape in her mind. This confirms that at least one woman has a conversation with at least one other woman and it is not about men. Mathilde is a female physician who can identify with the women because she, too, is a woman.  Also, Mathilde in one scene is almost raped by different soldiers. The importance of Fontaine’s work is that her film does not portray women as ‘objects’ who depend on men to take care of them.  This film shows how a group of women empower themselves despite prejudicial Church leaders and their chauvinistic ideas about rape. The film is not about women being objectified or judged by the ‘male gaze’. The film conveys a message about women being savagely raped after war.  It conveys the emotional and physical anguish that these women suffered because of being raped and the pregnancy and eventual giving birth. These women struggle and judge themselves because of their devotion and faith in God’s religion.  These women emphasize the trauma that women in our modern society are judged harshly.  The court system is unsympathetic towards women who seek justice against the man or men who rape them. It notes how these women feared retaliation from Male Church leaders, as well as, men and women in the secular community. These fears and concerns still plague women in our modern day society

This is a movie that everyone should see. It is a must see film that portrays Nuns that were raped brutally. The film brings out the power of friendship, faith, abortion, rape and women's rights.   

https://www.amazon.com/Innocents-Lou-Laâge/dp/B01GA4ILCS 

I admire Anne Fontaine because she was not happy in her career as a comedian.  This film allows the audience to experience a woman’s inner emotional and physical struggles when raped by a man or men, the necessity to have freedom to receive a safe, legal abortion, or be given birth control, healthcare and childcare regardless of a woman’s religion, ethnicity, women of color and every woman should not fear retaliation by our judicial system, religious institutions and by society.  Women are not objects to be lusted after in film, literature, music, videos, magazines, newspapers and through the web. Women who bring criminal charges against men who raped them should not be raped again by the Court System. The film shows the courage, tenacity, faith despite all odds, compassion and the power of female friendships. The film gives a voice to be heard and seen by women who were brutally raped.  It brings attention to the fact that when the nuns were raped, these soldiers did not have any respect or compassion about these women.  Rape is an issue that affects every woman, or girl whether they experienced being raped or finding out about a woman or girl who was raped.  Anne Fontaine is a woman who changed her career as a comedienne and took on a career where director/screenwriters are mostly men.  “Fontaine uses a somber, meditative approach to tell a story of survival and compromised faith. She works with a history that’s been well covered in cinema, especially if you include its references to the Holocaust, and avoids familiar by bringing a fresh feminist perspective to a time and place dominated by patriarchy”. Fontaine makes an important point in the film, “No matter what challenges the convent will face---whether they be literal or spiritual-it will be the women and not the men who will find a way to face them”. (link) Anne Fontaine feels that she has more freedom as a woman to direct/screenwriter of films since she lives in Europe.  She believes that there is more gender bias in the United States and noted that director/screenwriters are mostly dominated by men.  She hopes that women will be encouraged to seek a career as a director/screenwriter.

Works Cited:

Holden, Stephen. "Review: In 'The Innocents, 'Not Even Nuns Are Spared War Horrors." The New York Times. The New York Times, 2016. Web. 23 Nov. 2016.

" NZIFF: The Innocents."The Innocents • New Zealand International Film Festival. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Nov. 2016. 

Woodward, TextDaisy. "The True Story Behind Haunting New Film The Innocents." AnOther. N.p, n.d., Web. 23 Nov. 2016.

Post 4 The Politics of Sex

So I guess the idea of having a woman elected to be the President of the United States won’t ever happen cause that will ruin the continuous trend of male presidents right? This election has created so much anxiety and disappointments, more so due to the obvious which was the fact that Hilary Clinton was in every sense of the word qualified to become president but what drew back the possibility was her sex; the fact that women symbolize sensitivity, delicacy, her becoming president would be an act that would go against the norms and that is what most feared.

The repetitiveness of males being the over achievers, exceling in all endeavors just makes it much difficult and complicated for a woman who thrives to be her best to surpass all of it and women are prone to the negative critiques when it comes to work. For instance, Trump over and over again mentioned Hilary’s husbands betrayal, a failure that Trump made sure it would overshadow her strengths and have her to be seen as someone who is trouble, as someone who carries baggage and is not fit to hold such responsibility to be President. Trump had many tribulations but his mistakes are quickly dissipated, not payed much attention to, as if he gets a free pass while Hilary has to do deal with the dirt, the countless rumors, gossips that has been brought to the spotlight, neglecting her strengths, her smartness, her compassion to really want to do better for the people. But why pay attention to a woman, how will she do any good with her numerous mood swings? Her undeniable emotional exterior will only worsen the crisis that has been occurring for periods of time. This was simply a view of what people claim women will do or cause.

Women are inclined to having more barriers than men and that just facts. The Legalization of Abortion rights is accessible in certain places, “Feminists viewed abortion as central to their lives because so many of them had personally encountered the terror of an unwanted pregnancy and/or an illegal abortion”(Gay, 3). Abortion should not be in politics; women should have the choice of whether or not they want to have a child for it involves changing her life completely. “Too many politicians and cultural moralist are trying to define the shape and boundaries of the female body when women should be defining these things for ourselves. We should have that freedom, and that freedom should be sacrosanct” (Gay,274). I think media has had the power and will continue vigorously to convince women that the image they reveal is what we all should try to achieve. These overly exaggerated perfection ideals of beauty only overwhelms women because a real woman could never fully look as perfect as those in magazine covers, it’s all tech.

Sources

Gay, R. (2014). Bad feminist: essays. Harper Collins.

Nelson, J. (2003). Women of color and the reproductive rights movement. NYU Press.

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2016/10/fear-of-a-female-president/497564/

Conversations and Politics around Sex

Conversations and Politics around Sex

I will be the first to admit that I do not have any personal opinions on the topic of sex and sexuality but I hear great things about it.  Before college classes on gender and women, all I knew from various discussions and media about sex was that men would like to have more sex and many types of protection allow men to have more without the consequence.  The types of protection are birth control and condoms, and the consequence is a pregnancy.  Oh how naive I was to the politics of sex and what it meant.  I still do not know but now I know a little more.

From the various reading and discussion, I know that women in general take the most responsibilities resulting from sex.  What is interesting is that even though women have to take most  of the responsibility from engaging in sexual activities, the ones who lead the discussion about women’s bodies are men.  Roxane Gray would say that “I have to make sure I am not, in fact reading The Onion. We continue to have national and state debates about abortion, birth control, and reproductive freedom, and men, mostly, are directing that debate. That is the stuff of satire” (Gay 267).  I would have to agree with the statement that the debates are like satire but it is truly scary since this satire does not seem to stop.  I said it does not seem to stop because I hear about abortion during the second wave of the feminist movement where Roe v. Wade gave women the right to have an abortion and during the presidential race between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.  When would the national debates about abortion stop because it should not be discussed by the public since it is a personal and private decision a woman has to make.  Even the man who would be the father should not control whether the woman has an abortion since she is making the difficult choice of keeping the fetus or letting the fetus go.  I could only imagine a woman finding out about the pregnancy, finding out that she had no way to support the baby, and finding out that she could not stop the pregnancy from happening, all because her state politicians made it impossible for an abortion clinic to be accessible.  What kind of world do we live in where people control women and their bodies, making the lives of poor women and their children, for the lack of a better word, shitty.  That's right the world we live in is where "women are mere 'beauties' in men's culture so that culture can be kept male" (Wolf 59). I said poor women before because those with the privilege of flying out to a different country without losing anything to get an abortion do not have the shackles of capitalism.  It must be nice to be rich.  Any way, back to the debates and restrictions of reproductive rights, which I assume encompass abortion rights, do not really protect the majority of the United States population since women would try anything to stop the pregnancy.  Some of “these methods of self-abortion resulted in injury; sometimes they caused sterilization, or, worse yet, death” (Nelson 9).  One has to ask who would create this environment that is riddled with sexism and death.

There is no one answer to the person or organization that has devalued women over and over again. The messages taken from these politics is that women are secondary to men since some of them made it clear that they could control women’s bodies through legislation and that women are secondary to the potential baby. What is evident is that "the U.S. is the only country among 41 nations that does not mandate any paid leave for new parents" (Livingston). Taking away reproductive rights seems like politicians are restricting women from being sexually active.  Could it be that those men only care about getting reelected or could it be that they just do not care about women in their lives.  Until I know more about the reasons why there are still discussions about abortion, I would have to conclude that the goal of the barriers is to control and take away the rights of women.  I am reminded of the election race which Hillary Clinton lost to Donald Trump because the barriers for women are clearly shown.  It is a way to show that the barriers for abortion are just one aspect of the sexist society we live in.  The media reiterate this sexism when it talks about the clothing Hillary Clinton wore and not her policies.  The reiteration of abortion in the media is secretly enforcing the sexism in our culture.  Hillary Clinton is very strong in the sense that she was very close to the highest government office after all the choices taken away from women. The media treats Hillary with double standard but the fact that Hillary Clinton made it so far give me hope to a better society where men and women respect one another.

From Article from Washingtonpost.com. How the United States does not have paid maternal leave compare to other countries.

Work Cited

Gay, Roxane. The Alienable Rights of Women.

Livingston, Gretchen. Among 41 nations, U.S. is the outlier when it comes to paid parental leave. Pewresearch.org . 2016.
Nelson, Jennifer. Abortion to Reproductive Rights.
Wolf, Naomi. The Beauty Myth. Chatto & Windos. 1990.

Politics of Sex

 The formal structure of political life. What does that mean? Roxanne Gay told us that 

The policies of women have already stayed the same. The cognitive process of self identity started because of what social pressure puts on women. 

The fear of women taking control.. 

the fear of women having something to say

the fear of women having power.. 

the need belittle women to put into place.

This all bases on the fact that the woman "belongs" to the male, the fact that women are just objects to be played with, thrown around, looked at. 

I don't know where this idea started from or who thought it would be okay to deem it normal, but women are human too. Same as men, we have the same features as male, yet women are depreciated. 

According to The Alienable Rights of Women by Roxanne Gay, when there are obstacles, the government usually targets abortion, child birth, and birth control. Male officials, instead of letting woman take control over what is theirs to begin with, debates and decides what should women do with their own body. To me, I don't understand what gives the right for men to take control over women's body. What is even more absurd is that, there are women who abide by these standards. Unfortunately, some women may follow these because fear of breaking "tradition" or because of religion. All the services given to these women are either to convince these women to remain pregnant. Then when women needs a paid week off, it becomes a problem. According to Among 41 nations,

U.S. is the outlier when it comes to paid parental leave, the U.S. is the only country among 41 nations that does not mandate any paid leave for new parents. Why continue to force those women to be pro-choice when new parents can not be compensated for it..

Unfortunately, I didn't follow much about the election, but seeing the results, I saw the complete fear of women taking control. Donald Trump won against Hillary Clinton, showing the barriers for women, showing the sexism that still exists. On most of the news that I've seen, the most intriguing details of the Hilary's Speeches focuses around her clothes.

Take this picture for an example. What does wearing 0.5 inches heels matter for a debate? Shouldn't you be focusing on what she has to say? Surprise or not, these heels are not the only "fashion statement" that Hillary is rocking. Her smile is another one that receives backlash and also just her look in general. 

The fact that we only treat women and will only talk about women using their looks is something that worries me. I have not noticed this earlier, but every time a women is able to be deemed important starts from a headline news about how beautiful she looks or how perfect their outfit is. According to Kilbourne's The More You Subtract The More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size, she states that "The reduction of sexuality to a dirty joke and of people to objects is the real obscenity of the culture." The fact that so many people tell the victims of sexual assaults and rape that it's their own fault for dressing a certain way is something that concerns me. Women standards are obviously depicted by media to destroy women's self-esteem. 

Every woman is given a double standard. "Why are you wearing a hoodie? Are you trying to look like a boy?" or "You have to dress pretty so you can get a boy to like you!" and then there's the other side. "Why are you wearing a flow dress? Do you want people to rape you? Do you want people to stare at you?" or "You always say you don't want people to catcall, then why are you dressing like THAT?" How about no, I want to dress however I want. Those who sexual assault, catcall, and rape should be taught not to do so, and should understand the psychological and physical damage that comes during and after the event. 

Society has a lot more to do to fix the society's perspective of women, to rid of all the ridicule comments on women's body and let it be known that women are people of her own too. Women aren't objects and just like everyone else, women have eyes, nose, lips, hair and everything else. It has become harder to tell children to change our opinions on women when our ... president .. says terrible remarks on women and not to mention, anything that comes to his mind, which basically reverses all the confidence and defense against media and society women has tried to build over the pass years! However, if we keep drilling it into people's minds, and drilling to minds that women are human, not objects enough, people will begin to understand. Stop teaching sex education, teach not to rape rather than be raped, teach respect and dignity not hate, and understand perception on how much women has done before looking at her fashion. 

OR.. don't mind a women's fashion at all and focus on all her successes instead.

Bibilography

Roxanne Gay. Alienable Rights of Women 

Jean Kilbourne. The More You Subtract The More You Add: Cutting Girls Down to Size 

Gay, Roxane. Bad Feminist: Essays. New York: Harper Perennial,

Nelson, Jennifer. Women of Color and the Reproductive Rights Movement.