Sunday 29 May 2011

Black women, beauty and advertising

by Chitra Nagarajan

I'm sure you all remember Satoshi Kanazawa's claim that "Black women are … far less attractive than white, Asian, and Native American women." Psychology Today has since apologised for the post and removed it from their site (hence, why I haven't linked to it but you can read commentary about it here).

This week, comes the news that

Naomi Campbell is like chocolate...

...and Dove can make your skin become 'visibly more beautiful in just one week' (meaning of course whiter).


So not impressed.

Operation Black Vote has called for Cadbury's to apologise and withdraw its campaign and said the Dove advert reflects subliminal racial stereotypes in advertising.

What do y'all think?

Interview with Dan Tres Omi - a black male feminist


This interview was originally posted on www.msafropolitan.com
In honour of the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, I caught up with Dan Tres Omi, a freelance writer and lecturer whose meaningful and powerful writing I came across in Clutch Magazine in a article titled Black Male Feminist – What Being a Feminist means to me. I wanted to ask him why he became a feminist and why he thinks women’s equality is important for men also.
1. It is the 100th anniversary of International Women’s Day (IWD) this year. What does IWD mean to you?
When I think of the International Women’s Day, I immediately think of people like Phoolan Deviof India. Devi who was murdered in 2001 then reminds me of Ida B. Wells. Both Devi and Wells were warriors and both were responding to their immediate crises. They used the pen as a sword to fight for the rights of women everywhere.
Most recently I think of Wangari Maathai of Kenya who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2001. She stands out because she was on what later became the Green movement since the 1970s. What I enjoy the most of Maathai is her looking to raise the quality of life for everyone by doing something very simple: planting trees. When you learn about what she went through to just launch her political movement off the ground, you realise that she went through what a great number of women go through every day when it comes to patriarchy. She is a single mom just like my mother. Like my mother, she refused to sit back and just let things be. She rolled her sleeves up and went to work the best way she knew how. If anything, we should be taking cues from Maathai.
2. When did you become a feminist and what led you to make the decision?
Becoming a feminist was a long process. I never set out to become one. As a matter of fact, I was one of those who became a rabid dog if the term ‘feminist’ was mentioned around me. I pounced on anyone who claimed to be a feminist. I thought it was a white thing and excluded women of African descent. I thought it was antithetical to Pan Africanism.
I consider myself a critical thinker. When I wasn’t a feminist, I did see disparities between men and women but didn’t have the terminology to put two and two together. After reading folks like Dr. bell hooks and Audre Lourde who provide a clear analogy of white-supremacist-capitalist-patriarchy, I was able to put those things together and have a better understanding of those disparities. I was able to connect the dots and see how patriarchy is connected to white supremacy.
Again, it was a slow process for me. I can say it took about ten years for me to come around. Like anyone else, I was raised in a steep patriarchy. I had to learn about male privilege first and realize that privilege is not just invisible but relative. I have to thank many of the sisters I worked with who are feminists. They refused to back down and I thank them tremendously for not giving up on me. I said some harsh and hurtful things during those discussions. They could have easily chalked me up as a loss. They didn’t and I am so grateful for it. So I am living proof that the most reluctant brother can get down for the cause.
3. Despite the male privilege, do you believe that men also suffer from gender inequality and in what way?
Men suffer from gender inequality because of the disparities between men and women. If the quality of life is not raised equally for everyone, we all suffer. Gender equality is good for all of us, men, women and children. Women should earn equal pay. Women should have the same access as men do. This is good for everyone. My daughter and my nieces should be allowed the same career paths as my sons and nephews. That’s a win-win for everyone. Inequality only helps a handful of people. One might assume that privilege and patriarchy is advantageous to all men but this is not true. For example, patriarchy maintains a status quo that still places men of African descent as second class citizens.
We cannot claim to want equal rights and deny this to our woman. So when I hear men cry that there is ‘reverse sexism,’ I have to point out that they sound as ridiculous as white men who claim there is ‘reverse racism.’
4. You are a Pan Africanist as well as a feminist. How do you reconcile that feminism hasn’t always considered those cultures outside of the white western one and that Pan Africanism doesn’t always embrace the struggle for gender equality?
That’s a great question and it’s one I get all the time.  First of all, Pan Africanism is a political ideology that is not based on a cultural basis. Pan Africanism is in fact a concept that came up outside of the continent by Africans in the Diaspora. Some people aren’t happy when this is bought up. It makes sense, since the continent is made up 54 countries with separate histories and cultures. Oftentimes, we Pan Africanist base our understanding under Afrocentrism but the idea that Africa was once a unified nation is a myth.
All of the notable Pan Africanists who were born on the continent, studied abroad, and then came back to become political leaders of many African nations learned Pan Africanism while they were abroad. Many political leaders who took up the mantel of Pan Africanism were ran out of office. In the 21st century, Pan Africanism touted by political leaders in Africa is still unpopular. Pan Africanism is a reaction to white supremacy. If there wasn’t any European colonialism, Atlantic slave trade, or a deliberate European exploitation of African resources, would Pan Africanism exist?
I’m not saying Pan Africanism isn’t valid. It is tremendously important and I think it is a political ideology that provides the only viable solution for self determination for all of Africa and the people in the African Diaspora. If it wasn’t, none of the leaders who espoused this ideology would be dead or run out. If it wasn’t a viable option, then European powers would not go out of their way to destroy it and its adherents.
The problem is too many Pan Africanists don’t see beyond just kicking out the colonialists. Too many of our leaders are European in black face. Many of us intend on replacing the heads of patriarchy and continue the exploitation of our own especially women. This is not going to work. Women have to be a part of the struggle and the solution. If we don’t realize that then we are no better than those who enslaved us to begin with.
5. Do you have any black male feminist role model/s and why?
Kevin Powell was the brother who set me on the right path. I enjoy his honesty. I enjoy the fact that he realizes he is a work in progress. If there is anyone who made me realize what male privilege is it has to be Kevin Powell. It’s a shame that in his work to expose male privilege, he has been vilified and his work virtually ignored.
The film maker Byron Hurt hit out of the ball park with his documentary “Beyond Beats and Rhymes.” This film pretty much drew the line in the sand when it comes to patriarchy and hip hop.
Finally, Mark Anthony Neal was the first person I heard use the term black male feminist and it is Neal’s work that pretty much made me accept that term. I am not suggesting he was the first person to use the term but he was the first person I heard use it.
6. What has been the greatest challenge in being a black male feminist?
The greatest challenge is realizing that there is male privilege. The scary part is that there are days when I wake up in the morning and I embrace male privilege without even knowing it. It is so easy to slip back into patriarchy mode and revert to being sexist. I remember teaching my sons Chi Sao/sticky hands. Unintentionally I called to them only when I began their lessons. My wife pointed out that I never called my daughter. For a moment I wondered to myself why she would ever need me to teach her Chi Sao or spar with her as a girl. Then my heart skipped a beat. There I was, a black male feminist, denying my daughter lessons in Martial Arts because she is a girl. Turns out, she is my best student!
7. In ten years from now, where do you hope that the black community will be in terms of gender equality?
I hope that feminists such as Dr. bell hooks becomes as intrinsic to Black Liberation as Malcolm X and Marcus Garvey. I hope that we read and learn about feminists from other African countries and countries in the Diaspora and their work becomes more familiar to all of us. [Editors note – see post on 7 African feminists for a start]. I hope that when we talk about Arturo Schomburg, we also talk about Ida B. Wells in the same vein. I hope to see the same level of respect given to women in our communities who put in work and are not overshadowed by their male counterparts. I hope to work with more men who see women as partners in our struggle.
Thoughts, questions? Do you agree with the point raised by Dan Tres Omi, that contemporary patriarchy is a Western concept and one which ultimately stifles Pan Africanism? Do you see a link between male privilege and white privilege?

Sunday 1 May 2011

Cameron's Calm Down Dear

by Lola Okolosie

So on the same day in which a conservative councillor, Payam Tamiz, is kicked out of the Tory party for calling the women of Thanet 'sluts', the Prime Minister has himself made sexist comments during Prime Minister Question Time. It appears that Cameron has gotten away with dismissing Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Angela Eagle with the offensive rebuttal ‘calm down dear’. With the royal wedding happening in the same week, we were all supposed to stop worrying about it and get on with wondering what Kate’s dress was going to look like. Angry and disgusted.
 
Watching some of the live coverage of the wedding, I was even more incensed that journalists seemed particularly interested in asking little girls what they thought of ‘Kate’s dress’. Not what they thought of the wedding ceremony, but the dress.  Indeed, this was not just something asked of ‘little girls’ who all, clearly the hype would have you believe, desire nothing more than to become a passive princess. I only mention this because it will be the media’s excuse for not taking more time over Cameron’s quite blatant sexism.  There is no denying the following facts: Angela Eagle was not the only MP taking umbrage with Cameron during PM, yet she was the only one he thought to single out. Even more worrying, his put down was reliant on patronising her because of her gender. It would seem that it is not only Cameron and Payam Tamiz who hold sexist attitudes in the Conservative party. When Cameron made his comment George Osbourne’s face illuminated with absolute glee.

Cameron should have done the right thing and apologised for his comments. He has not. Instead he has gone on the offensive and claimed ‘socialists have no sense of humour’. To apologise would be to admit that his comments were sexist, offensive and plain wrong. I smell a double standard here. I wonder if Angela Eagle can write directly to the Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equality Theresa May (obviously her first job doesn’t have a wide enough remit and there are no other women in the Conservative party that can dedicate the time and attention she can to the second position) about the treatment of women in politics. I wonder too, how Samantha Cameron, as a ‘British business executive’, would react if she was told to ‘calm down dear’ after giving a passionate response to a particular idea.
 
I also cannot help wondering how it is that to challenge such obvious sexism in the Conservative party is only being responded to with the old accusation that it is ‘Political Correctness gone mad’. The cover of this quarter’s Fabian Society publication, Fabian Review, has a number of startling statistics that clearly show how we must vocally challenge the still marginalised position women hold in our politics and society.

Here are some of them:
- since 1918, 4719 men have been elected to the House of Commons, as opposed to 355 women in the same time frame
- in 2010 267 constituencies had all men candidates, the same figure for women is just 11
- only 14% of local authority leaders are women, 86% of them are men
- the percentage of female MPs in the Labour, Conservative and Liberal Democrat party is 32%, 16% and 12% respectively. We are nowhere near equal representation.
 
How then can women, feminist or not, sit back and not be completely furious at the patronizing treatment of one of the few female MPs, holding a prominent position, in the House of Commons. It is disingenuous to suggest that this ‘throw-away’ comment was not meant to offend. Such an obvious example of the undermining of women, Cameron’s ‘calm down dear’ is just the same as that heardby women up and down the country, who, when articulating their disagreement in the workplace or the home, are just dismissed by the notion that they are taking it all too seriously. They can’t, the argument goes, by virtue of being female, grasp the real dynamics of the given situation, because their female hormones makes women blow things out of all proportion.

In comparison to Gordon Brown’s ‘that bigoted woman’, there was much more of a sustained media storm over that ‘incident’. In the media’s eyes Cameron’s casual sexism is not comparable to Brown’s off-mic faux pas. It would seem that there are far more people worried about EU migrants “flocking” the UK like birds, than there are women in this country.

Particularly in light of Tamiz’s comments and subsequent sacking, the Conservatives, one would expect, would be a little more sensitive regarding gender equality issues. Come now, this is the party that is comfortable with seeing women lose £8.80 a week as a result of the cuts, men will only forgo £4.20. And it is the same party that seems unaware of the fact that women make up 90% of the group most affected by the cuts, single parents.

The reality is that casually sexist comments like this one, often reflect an ingrained attitude that is in some ways, more sinister because we are forever told that political correctness is a terrible thing stopping us from saying what we really want. The first response is always that you are being PC and thus over the top. When, in truth, we should always, especially if you are the Prime Minister, always be conscious of the power of language and what it is there to do, communicate our thoughts and feelings.
 
To somehow claim that the comment wasn’t sexist is, in my eyes, unforgivable. This is yet another example of how the existence of these deeply embedded and disempowering attitudes are denied.