New review: Women, Power & Politics: Now

By Jess McCabe | 19 July 2010, 07:38

Laura Nelson reviews this collection of short plays at London’s Tricycle theatre

As part of The Tricycle’s Women, Power & Politics series, the theatre is hosting two collections of short plays; ‘Now’ focusing on contemporary issues of women and politics, and ‘Then’, which turns its gaze on the past. This is a review of ‘Now’, the contemporary-focused half of the programme.

An actor playing the role of female politician strides across the stage. She’s confident, she’s powerful. This is contemporary society, after all, in which women have the same rights as men to work, to become politicians and to become leaders of the country if they want to.

But there’s something amiss. Will this woman get what her male counterparts are getting? She is better, she works harder, but she is judged more harshly. She may work herself to exhaustion, she may achieve great results; but the criticism, the lack of support and the centuries-old legacy of male dominance that hack away at her self-esteem and warp how people perceive her, stop her in her tracks.

The first of the ‘Now’ plays, by Joy Wilkinson, is the story of Margaret Beckett, the Acting Leader of the Opposition and the sole female candidate in the race to lead the Labour party. Should she go for deputy as well? Her inner voice - the self-doubt that is the result of a lifetime of society’s pressure on women to give way to men - tells her that men deserve more. “Don’t listen to the men, you are the best!” say the (few) voices supporting her. But Tony Blair and John Prescott have more money for their campaigns. The newspapers say how good Tony is - and how bad she is. She doesn’t give up. She runs. She comes third. The woman who worked so hard for her party doesn’t even win her old job back.

Click here to read on and comment

Permanent Link

Women in prison: Inspectorate report

By Jolene Tan | 16 July 2010, 20:21

Last week the Inspectorate of Prisons released a thematic report on women’s prisons.

Prisons are mostly populated by people who have been socially excluded in any number of ways, but there are, as you might expect, gendered aspects to these experiences. Female prisoners have frequently suffered domestic violence and/or sexual abuse, and mental health difficulties are particularly prevalent amongst women in prison, something illustrated especially starkly by one graphic statistic: women make up only 5% of the prison population in England and Wales, but account for almost half of the self-harm incidents in prison.

The new economics foundation has argued that more investment should be made into alternatives to custody for many women offenders, rather than the use of prison. In September 2008, 68% of women were in prison for non-violent offences, and in 2008, three quarters of sentenced women were serving less than twelve months. (Short prison sentences have recently been criticised by both Ken Clarke and the National Audit Office.) If the government is looking to make budget cuts, the costly use of damaging prison sentences is fertile ground for savings, with greater intervention in health, housing and other social services ultimately likely to be far more cost effective for society, in addition to being more just.

Read the Inspectorate report here.

Permanent Link | Comments (2)

Advice needed: how should teenager deal with sexist teasing from boys at school?

By Jess McCabe | 16 July 2010, 14:41

What advice would you give a teenage girl on dealing with sexist comments from male classmates? Sarah wrote in with this question:

I get teased in school - what’s the best way of shutting down boys who say girls can’t follow football? What can I say to those that seem to think that girls and sports don’t mix?

They also seem to forget that there’s a girl attached to my breasts sometimes too :(

Permanent Link | Comments (19)

‘My fault, I’m female’

By Jess McCabe | 15 July 2010, 18:38

Finally, a place to get those stories of “gender discrimination, pay gap disparity, denial of rights, and inequality” off your chest in an anonymous fashion.

My Fault, I’m Female looks like an interesting blog-to-watch. So far the venting relates to being chided for not wearing makeup, workplace sexual harassment suffered during a summer job in a hotel, and motherly love.

The founder tells us it was inspired by the French blog Vie de meuf, in which women in France record workplace discrimination in a similarly anonymous fashion.

They are also on Twitter.

Photo of venting by on1stsite, shared on Flickr under a Creative Commons license

Permanent Link | Comments (4)

me maskuline

By Jess McCabe | 15 July 2010, 14:00

This art and video exhibition in London on masculinity looks interesting. From the press release:

‘me maskuline’ is an exhibition of photography and video works exposing masculinity. The exhibition will take place at ArtsBar, Camberwell from 26th July to 7th August. The two-week exhibition at ArtsBar, Camberwell, will feature artists including Oreet Ashery, Rosie Gunn, Alexis Hunter, Derek Jackson, Del LaGrace Volcano, Tracy Allen, Katy Norton, Grace Lau and Alex Brew.

Alex Brew, curator and exhibiting artist said: “Masculinity is seen as normal. It’s never seen as an act or fake. Rarely questioned, it’s the norm, unchallengeable. Femininity - that’s meant to be the thing that’s a put on. Make-up, heels, implants. Femininity can be moulded and enhanced. Putting aside the stereotypes, masculinity’s just as much of a show. Even a tease.

“My work is looking at how I interact with masculinity so I was interested in how other artists see masculinity, play around with it and expose it.”

Combining work spanning 30 years, the exhibition includes images last exhibited in London in the ’70s. Alexis Hunter’s ‘Approach to Fear XVII: Masculinisation of Society - exorcise’ was last shown in London at the Whitechapel Gallery in 1979, the same year it was banned from Ireland. She will also show new, previously un-shown work featuring Stuckist ringleader Charles Thomson.

Grace Lau will show black and white images from her early (1980s) work exploring women’s response to the male gaze and the erotic male nude. Oreet Ashery’s recent work ‘Dancing with Men’ will be projected. The dvd has been exhibited internationally including at the New York Jewish Museum and documents a gender intervention in which the artist, dressed as an orthodox Jewish man, dances at the yearly celebration at Meron mountain in Israel.

Del LaGrace Volcano ‘one of instigators of polymorphous perverse queer culture’, according to Tamsing Wilton in An Encyclopedia of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Culture, who has exhibited at the V&A and Courtauld Galleries, will show work never shown before in London.

The exhibition opens on 26th July. Last day to catch it is 7th August. Come to a night of art, performance, discussion and DJs on 29th July - open to all but RSVP. Also film screenings, slideshows and artist talks from Del LaGrace Volcano and Alex Brew on 5th August NB CHANGE OF DATE The gallery is open from 6pm every night bar Sunday. For information go to www.facebook.com/memaskuline

Permanent Link | Comments (0)