"I like the idea of growing up and being a woman - the end of childhood but keeping part of your nature," said Sofia Coppola, the director (no "female director" or "woman director" here) who sensitively captures the hearts and minds of young women, in an IHT interview.
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Kimberly Rydzewski quit America's Next Top Model (Cycle 10) because she did not have interest in the fashion industry. It might seem ridiculous to a lot of people why this girl chose to be there in the first place, but the reactions of judges and model wannabees were more comedic than the offered elimination itself. What's to be so appalled? It's always in the middle of a relationship that we realize something is wrong.
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Crazy graphic assemblage AND with sound.
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Here is Dita Von Teese's comment on women as sex objects in Indie Sex: "I think that historically, women have always been viewed as beautiful, sexual objects. And I know a lot of people don't want to hear that, and they don't want that, and they feel like it's a feminist view that we shouldn't be portrayed as sex objects, but this is... We've been sex objects for hundreds of years. It's not gonna change. And I say if you can't beat 'em, join 'em. Everyone fantasizes about being a sex object every once in a while. I can't imagine anyone, in their deepest, darkest, most sexual fantasies, they're wishing that someone loved them or that someone cared about their mind or having an intellectual conversation. When it comes down to it, we're animals, in a way. We just want to be, like, sex objects. And so I just feel historically it's not something new. It's not like suddenly women are being portrayed in this way, where they just wanna show us all topless and show us as sexual creatures. It's been going on forever." I love Dita's way of showing her own beauty and sexual attraction without disguising them with pseudo-righteous masks. Feminism doesn't mean being cold and clothed in front of the camera or erasing make-up and breaking heels of high heels. It should help embrace all sexual qualities (including patriarchal stereotypes, yes) that possibly exist in this world - and all sexes that exist in this world, and treat them fairly. Apparently some people handle men's sexual organ more strictly than they do for women's: (Dana Stevens) "There's an early scene in the film [Young Adam] when Ewan McGregor goes down on Tilda Swinton on a riverbank right out in the open. You could make a feminist argument that that's an unusual scene to see in movies, and that it might be the content of that scene more than the raciness that pushed that movie into NC-17 territory. I would imagine that implied female-on-male oral sex might be more acceptable to censors, you know? It seems to be happening all the time in R-rated movies. The outcry also had to do with the extensive nudity by Ewan McGregor, although you never see him with a hard-on." (Peter Sarsgaard) "The ratings board can only handle so much penis. They can handle a lot of tits and ass. If you have a penis in a movie, you get a certain amount of time with that penis before you become NC-17." (Alonso Duralde) "For some reason, the penis is still forbidden territory. It's just that... It's that last line that nobody wants to cross." So penis and nude man must be quite a thing. That's why we have nude men introduced at ff! Let's make men sex objects too and appreciate their dic...penises and gaze at them all the time. I believe they want that too, for if women don't see them as sex objects (or subjects, whatever they want) or if women have no sexual interest in them, they won't have the chance to be the studs they'd love to label themselves as. Go, strip men in movies and in real life!
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This is a picture from my friend Joyce, of her classmates in secondary school (I hope they don't mind me posting). It made her think of ff. Naturally I'm putting it here. Joyce said (maybe casually, in MSN) she was terrified how Form 2 girls back in 1994 knew what hot bodies were. I don't know if this picture shows their concept of hot body, but I'm curious what game they were playing, for there was only one "male". It reminds me of an image in which Tom Ford appears to be the creator of the clothes (called "fashion") and the models. I wonder if it is the case, when women dominate in number, they are usually in a supporting role. Fashion designer and models, doctor and nurses, pilot and flight attendants (formerly "air hostesses")...I can't name a reverse case now. Not that I hope cases are reversed, but one can't deny the P word is still all around.
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No...ff isn't that big to get a gift from Barbara Wong. It's a gift for everyone. Here comes her new short film, Women's Private Parts - Family version! /Barbara's blog/
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how they ride Web 2.0
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There are a couple of women among The 25 Most Influential People on the Web. Pretty nice already, considering it's the male-dominated (oh which respected field is not male-dominated?) tech circle. With her "adult supervision" and effort to make "Silicon Valley's hottest startup (that is dominated by young, mostly male computer engineers) to grow up", I can easily imagine Sheryl Sandberg's role as a wonderful mother in Facebook. I really appreciate maternal power and care, but it is still obscure why we should connect women (only) with raising of kids. Would the article be written in a different way, be the influential person male?
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The contents speaks fairly enough. /He's a Stud, She's a Slut and 49 Other Double Standards Every Woman Should Know by Jessica Valenti/
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「重男輕女，大概是男人體內內磨滅不去的DNA。」- /Yahoo! Hong Kong Style/ 又一個肥皂劇般的故事，卻時常發生在現實當中。關於 DNA 的一句，應該是作者的比喻；「重男輕女」可是意識形態的一種，和遺傳學無關。但按這說法，該基因不只在男性呈顯性，在女性身上也顯而易見，而且如病毒般不斷擴散，一代傳一代。 我們需要進化，改變不良基因。
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Young aspiring film-makers are given a chance to exercise their thoughts about gender stereoptyping and discrimination of women and girls. Focus on Film and The Women's Foundation are recruiting for A Girl's Life, three short films concerning gender issues. Director Barbara Wong fully supports this programme. For details, please check the FOF page.
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Comics by Scott McCloud, illustrating the new cool Google Chrome
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Following the Facebook group, a shorter, easier-to-remember URL comes along. This website is still powered by db-db.com (a thousand thanks from a computer dummy!), but besides remembering the long who loves who slash slash code, you can also come by ff.sin-stuff.com Easy!
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The official Facebook group of Fortissimo is opened. Please join. /Fortissimo @ Facebook/
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Let's admit it. Fishnets on a woman wouldn't cause so much shock and terror. Alright...maybe. /The Sartorialist/
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by the law of feminism, if any, to do this. /PostSecret/
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It has been some time after the entry Invisible Men but finally, a Flickr group of TWONTW is opened and submissions are very welcome. Browsing through flickr pictures for potential photographs, I saw cute dress with ponytail, different positions, "man boobs", man in skirt and a lot more. There are also some wearing according to their culture. This makes me wonder why with so many options we used skirt to differentiate in the first place and it has become so universally used. Despite the fact that women can wear both pants and dress, it is difficult to spot a man in skirt. Could this be partly reinforced by stereotyping signs? While it is undeniable that stereotypes and conventions are often required for signage applications, and that common toilet signs are doing well in terms of identification, it is equally recognizable that the signs imply a gender issue that should be concerned.
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An ongoing project by Miranda July and Harrell Fletcher. Let's submit some assignments.
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From magazine to blog, ff started as a (school) project that challenges norms in consumerist and patriarchal worlds.
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You may think this is written by a hard-core fashion victim (though she may as well be one), but reflective remarks add some intellectual flavour to those funny silly tones. She's April and my friend, and this is her fashion blog: /Wearing This, Thinking That/ a little note: April is the model for She in Fortissimo issue one
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It always has been a physical magazine. Sorry for taking the pictures this late, but here they are: /Fortissimo @ sin_stuff/
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"We've become plastic, objectifying the human body...waxed, polished and buffed and shined up and manipulated. And then, of course, I'm portrayed as the one doing the manipulating, polishing, buffing, shaping, which is what I do. It's just what we do. What the fashion industry does." - /W magazine/ Chenman's vision is daring, chic and very (contemporary) Chinese. Artistically commercial, the aesthetic and artificial qualities of her works demonstrate the above quotation from Tom Ford, on the fashion industry. Yet since Chen's subjects are often energized with characters, objectification is turned into something else, a wildness that is representative of her style. She gives life to the objectified.
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a personal page newly built with indexhibit
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Fashion is one's own, so is feminism. /Feminist by Nick Knight/
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...T-shirt /The Sartorialist/
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If you don't feel uncomfortable about the fact that this is led by a product brand and has in(de)finite connections with lines and series of products, Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty may be a fair resource for you who (body)care.
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free-drawing 37cm x 44cm/ 120 HKD, 16 USD
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While brands sell by telling how nice these look, their helping hands - the "creative industry" - sells by telling how bad these looked. Here is one example: /Christiane Beaulieu/ Believe it or not, CONSUMERS! (note: clients that use retouching services are also consumers)
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magnet-embedded curtain by Florian Kräutli Kräutli's design is the best kind of marriage: one of utility and beauty. - FLAUNT magazine
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secretly by sin 38cm x 30cm/ *sold*
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witty funny speeches by the one who did dance monkeys dance
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This is the first "feminist" (it looks so, if I haven't mistaken) postcard that I got since I started postapostcard. Thank you, whoever made it. Since it says it is from Onebeat Social Awareness Network and I could not find information of the group, may I know if anyone knows about it or is from there (or posted this)?
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/figure using Yves Klein's Untitled Anthropometry/ 水呈液態，如何被捆綁？ 可由於液態的特性，水被迫要和容器成同一形狀。 - 今天看過城市當代舞蹈團《女書》的演出，舞配合字，表現古今女性的故事。記下當中兩句(可能和原文有出入)： 「她無法自救於被論述的命運」 「或許肉體敗壞時靈魂才能得到自由」 - 水化掉成蒸氣，或許能得到自由；若蒸氣聚在一起，或許能成千萬種姿態。
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看《兩妻時代》， 當中岳母說(要找對象的)女子不用有學問，最重要是能生兒育女、懂得照顧家人。 看海港城廣告，(女)旁述說女人一定要化妝。 看(男)同學的部落格，他的媽媽說男孩不用學烹飪，這是女孩的事。 故事與現實，類似例子身邊常有，不單是人們的意見，女人都紛紛給自己、給其他女人(和男人 ─ 特別是兒子)評價，評甚麼應該、甚麼不應該。同樣的情況也發生在男人身上。性別在社會決定一個人的各種人生取向、抉擇和行為 ── 應該說，社會以性別(當然還有其他因素)界定這些。
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《性工作者十日談》中的社工常提到妓女應視性工作為正當職業，只要努力做又做得開心，和其他工作無異。性工作也可以是正當工作，這點很合理，但我懷疑這工作可以有多開心。不是對篇劇的質疑，而是對這題目感到矛盾，支持性工作者及讓她們的地位得到社會的肯定故然是對，可是又擔心這樣一來，會否令以性工作者發洩的一群更加理所當然地差劣對待這些「樂意為他們效勞」的工作者？或許我想得比較悲觀，認定性工作者的工作，照理是肯定她們的地位和權益，對防止欺凌她們的行為應該是有幫助的。再看其他職業，其實某些顧客態度不友善和不尊重是避免不了，例如推銷員受不禮貌對待也得以禮回應，才表專業。「顧客永遠是對的」雖然不甚合理，在一般行業卻似乎沒有嚴重問題；但當這發生在性交易這和身體接觸有直接關係的行業時，「不友善」的表現往往不只是言語傷害，還是暴力。其傷害不單是身體上，還有精神上，而這行業的問題當然不只是暴力。如何提倡視性工作為並將其成為正當行業，同時又能消除此行業現存的黑暗面，不只是談人權和平等能解決。
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「我觉得女孩子与女孩子之间有一种很重要的感情，那是没有语言可以形容的，跟男朋友再好也没法达到。」- 李心洁 /xinhuanet/ I'm not a boy so I don't know, but I guess the kind of intimacy between two girls is not what can be found between two boys, be it friendship or romance. There seems to be a particular, different form of chemistry. Again, I'm not a boy so I don't know, but I guess mother-daughter relationship is different from father-son relationship in a similar way. Is this type of relation character natural, or formed by norm? Both, it must be. But I wonder how different (or similar) they can be, if the society hasn't formed so clear a set of attributes for each sex.
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/text on clipping from Discover magazine/ "My Vagina Was My Village", from The Vagina Monologues: My vagina was green, water soft pink fields, cow mooing sun resting sweet boyfriend touching lightly with soft piece of blond straw. There is something between my legs. I do not know what it is. I do not know where it is. I do not touch. Not now. Not anymore. Not since. My vagina was chatty, can't wait, so much, so much saying, words talking, can't quit trying, can't quit saying, oh yes, oh yes. Not since I dream there's a dead animal sewn in down there with thick black fishing line. And the bad dead animal smell cannot be removed. And its throat is slit and it bleeds through all my summer dresses. My vagina singing all girl songs, all goat bells ringing songs, all wild autumn field songs, vagina songs, vagina home songs. Not since the soldiers put a long thick rifle inside me. So cold, the steel road canceling my heart. Don't know whether they're going to fire it or shove it through my spinning brain. Six of them, monstrous doctors with black masks shoving bottles up me too. There were sticks, and the end of a broom. My vagina swimming river water, clean spilling water over sun-baked stones over stone clit, clit stones over and over. Not since I heard the skin tear and made lemon screeching sounds, not since a piece of my vagina came off in my hand, a part of the lip, now one side of the lip is completely gone. My vagina. A live wet water village. My vagina my hometown. Not since they took turns for seven days smelling like feces and smoked meat, they left their dirty sperm inside me. I became a river of poison and pus and all the crops died, and the fish. My vagina a live wet water village. They invaded it. Butchered it and burned it down. I do not touch now. Do not visit. I live someplace else now. I don't know where that is.
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"Why do a play about vaginas?" is a common question to The Vagina Monologues. After watching the play years before I also asked this to myself. Is spreading the message of stopping violence against women and liberating women through a play based on a female private body part necessary? After thinking, I thought, yes, it is necessary. And appropriate. From silence on topics such as rape and sexual abuse to everyday avoidance of mentioning the body part and occurrences to it indicate the lack of preparation for us to confront the problems. Behaviour and speech reflect thoughts. If we cannot speak the word and talk about it, not only the word remains a taboo, but also issues concerned. In this play, vagina represents women, vagina speaks for women. The success of this play at different states and around the world is probably a result of a connection with the biological structure. For women, what we have. For men, what they may be intimate with. The body is universal. It speaks in all languages that people of different types and nations can relate to, despite specific cultural contexts of different stories. Reading the book, I understand more about their (author Eve Ensler, director Karen Obel and student and different parties who support V-Day and spread the words of TVM) intention to make a difference, to clear the ignorance of the subject. /femininity/
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Best british wits were chosen and none of them woman - yet another example of the dominance of men, of which the oddity is never stranger than if its all women in the list - because we always treat dominance of men (at more prominent ranks) normal. /related entry: Invisible Men/ "She...makes her point a far more subtle, funnier way." Right. This sentence tells women's character. Possession of a subtle kind of power (funniness as discussed in the article, other kinds of ability in other contexts). Women may be made invisible by the society, but their force is undeniable. Be it conventional mothers taking care of every family member and nurturing children, elite women performing in specific fields, or any types of women working in different areas, they all contribute to the wellbeing of the human race. They may be subtle, they may be soft, but we should not neglect them - as female myself, i would say, we should not neglect us - and some of us can be as strong as needed. /drawing/
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The original blog was opened for the research stage of the project. Below is the introduction for that phase. - This blog is opened to act as a notebook to jot down any materials, notes or thoughts concerning feminism and gender, for research of my final year project at school. The subject to be studied will be women fashion magazines in Hong Kong. The result will be a visual execution that is not yet known/ decided. This is an exploration stage for now. Below is a brief reflection on the topic: The field that I am going to study is feminism. Since feminism is concerning with the equality between male and female powers, it would concern how men and women are viewed, not only women. It could be seen that despite the relative freedom of women in Hong Kong, whether it’s occupational, political or legal, there are some values that are held by people including them, about how a woman should behave. Despite always being labeled as strong and confident, especially those in professions, they are most probably still bound to some set ideas about women. In other words, independent as they may be, they cannot fully exercise will, or are shaped by the society to a large extent. This would happen to men also, as long as it happens to women, for one rule on women often implies one rule on men. Though these may be clichés already, it is true that they are still believed or held by the society. The following are ideologies in four aspects, adapting from classification of ideologies introduced in an article《尋找香港本土意識》by 吳俊雄. These aspects are: daily life practices, shared views (common sense), ideological elements and systematic discourse, concerning how “woman” is portrayed. In daily life practices, most women followed the conventional style of having long hair and wearing dress. Certainly, all can and do wear trousers and some have short hair, and following a traditional style of being “feminine” does not mean inferior in mentality to gain any kind of rights. Yet viewing how few men leave long hair and almost none wear dress, it is easy to see implications of “male” and “female” images, which very possibly refer to views other than mere look. Over-dominance of men in all types of professions and work exists, especially in high ranks. Women are responsible for taking care of children while men are responsible for earning money. The former does not change even when women have to work for a living. One example of conception of men in professions can be this: male doctors are called doctors, while female doctors are called female doctors - as if it’s normal for doctors to be male. This would be same, or reverse, for nurses. Even naming suggests certain thinking about gender. There are some shared views on this subject. Taking work as an example again, besides perceiving women as who to take care of children and housework, they are not considered working, i.e. having a job, for what they do. Housewife is not considered an occupation. On men, they would be considered “weak” if they were the ones who stay at home to look after children instead of working, if it’s the wives who earn a living. Thoughts such as “boys don’t cry” may not be applicable nowadays, but boys are expected to play robots rather than dolls, and girls vice versa. Clear borders are set between the two sexes and they mould children’s characters. This is the case, however, only in child development. In the field of professions, men are dominant as mentioned. Stylists, fashion designers, cooks, dancers…all of whom the actions would be considered feminine and not suitable for men if they were not in the professional level. But once professional, persons in charge would be expected to be male. About ideological elements, main qualities of a (perfect) man as perceived by the majority would be strong and able, that of a (perfect) woman would be gentle and beautiful. “Men for what’s outside the home, women for what’s inside the home” is a general conception about a decent family. Women are still behind and supporting their great successful men. All these ideas were directly or indirectly implanted since family and school education. The mass media and other social voices are reinforcing these to be true. Pressure ensures that only those who fall into these categories are considered normal. On systematic discourse, most obvious manipulations of gender and gender stereotypes can be seen in advertising. Business companies portray successful life through decisive male characters. Fashion brands portray beautiful women who can own the power to stylize themselves, whether it’s for men or to fit feminine qualities. Sometimes women may dress up neuter, but it’s often for a fashion style or gimmick than to really break the norm, and most often they are pretending to be masculine than feminine-in-suit. Women (have to) look like men to be strong and confident. This is depicted in some credit card advertising. Exploiting gender contributes is more of a way to attract customers than to make ideological stands, but advertisements do take a large part in setting mind sets of different groups of people. For this project, to narrow down the area to be studied, I would choose fashion magazines for women in Hong Kong since they not only have a large amount of advertisements that deal with the image building of the female character, but also writings on it. They often emphasize the ability of women and importance of them in the society. Whether these views are justified through the content and how different concepts of “woman” are depicted would be the main area of study. Other feminist and gender materials would be viewed to support any judgements.
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House of Holland Irony 34cm x 42cm/ *sold*
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Ian Curtis 34cm x 43cm/ *sold*
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Scum Bag 33cm x 41cm/ *sold*
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Henry 37cm x 43cm/ *sold*
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out before that bag 34cm x 43cm/ *sold out*
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