Summer reading list with a difference

Isabel Allende (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for Tuesday 7 August is taken from Women’s Views on News

Meg Kissack
WVoN co-editor 

Like many, I enjoy reading, but sometimes find it hard to track down a good book.

After a while, the book charts and the summer reading lists all start to look the same – murder mysteries, family dramas, sagas, chick lit and historical fiction, but not much else.

Unless you count the latest 50 Shades of Grey frenzy, but that rant is for another day!

So I’ve compiled a reading list of books that I think WVoN readers will enjoy. There is a mix of memoirs, autobiography and fiction, but with one thing in common – they are all about women who defy convention and have the boldness and audacity not to be afraid to stand out.

The Kabul Beauty School: The Art of Friendship and Freedom – Debbie Rodriguez

This book follows the journey of American Debbie Rodriguez as she travels to Kabul and sets up a beauty training school for Afghan women. Detailing the stories of the women she meets in Kabul, Rodriguez takes the reader into the lives of Afghan women post-Taliban. Hair dressing and beauty salons were banned under the regime. Today they are two of the few professions which give women independence and a real sense of freedom. In the most dangerous country in the world, Rodriguez’s account is inspirational and hopeful, and will leave part of your heart in Afghanistan.

The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox – Maggie O’Farrell

O’Farrell examines what it is to be an unconventional young woman in 1930s Edinburgh and the 21st century in this thought provoking read. Esme Lennox was sent to an asylum at the age of sixteen for being unruly; refuseing to participate in etiquette and behaviour which was expected of a young woman and daring to declare that she would like to stay on at school, and not get married. Sixty years after she was incarcerated, a young woman, Iris Lockheart, receives a letter stating that her great-aunt Esme (whom she had never heard of) was about to be released. In the midst of her busy life running a vintage clothes shop and having various affairs, the two women’s lives collide . O’Farrell’s novel is well-researched and paints a thought provoking picture of what it is to be a woman challenging the boundaries of her gender in 1930s Britain.

The Help –  Kathryn Stockett

Superbly written, Stockett’s novel The Help is set during the civil rights era in the southern states of the US, when racism was rife. It is told from the point of view of the three main characters – Skeeter, a white aspiring journalist; Abileen, a black maid who has spent  her life raising white children and who recently lost her only son; and Minny, a sassy- mouthed maid with a reputation. The novel is about female friendship, empowerment, and the importance of women telling their stories, in the face of discrimination and in the risk of losing it all. The book has been made into a movie which I strongly recommend, you can watch the trailer here (it does however give away a few spoilers).

The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende

Allende’s novel follows the lives of three generations of headstrong Chilean women leading up to and during the Chilean revolution. Named as one of the most prolific female writers of the Latin American literary boom, Allende is an astounding storyteller and weaves magic into the various elements of this novel, from the way domestic space is transformed into a magical female space, and how women are treated in a period of political turmoil and violence. A great novel that will leave you wanting to read much more of Allende’s work.

If you have anything to add to our summer reads, we’d love to hear your suggestions so please comment and we will add them to this page.

Related articles

• Book Review: Island Beneath The Sea by Isabel Allende (chalkthesun.wordpress.com)
• Heartwarming and Controversial, Even Now (middayinspiration.wordpress.com)
• Book Review: The Help by Kathryn Stockett (eatchocolate.wordpress.com)

Obama Raises Issues of Women’s Empowerment at G8 Summit.

Barack Obama (Photo credit: jamesomalley)

News for May 21st was taken from Women’s Views on News.

President Obama raised the issue of women’s empowerment at Saturday’s G-8 summit at the Camp David presidential retreat in western Maryland.

As leaders joined to discuss the situation in Afghanistan and the world economy, Fox News reported that he said:

“We had a brief discussion around the issue of women’s empowerment, where we agreed that both, when it comes to economic development and when it comes to peace and security issues, empowering women to have a seat at the table and get more engaged and more involved in these processes can be extraordinarily fruitful”.

Women’s rights have also become a battleground for the 2012 presidential candidates, with Democrats accusing Republicans of waging a ‘war on women’, not least because of their attacks on Planned Parenthood, America’s leading reproductive health care provider.

These attacks are, by all accounts, causing the Republican candidate, Mitt Romney, some concern because of reports that they have led to a surge of support for Obama.

And Obama is not letting up. Speaking to women graduates from the all-female Barnard college in New York recently, he urged them to: “fight for your seat at the table, or better yet, fight for a seat at the head of the table”.

Obama is not the only politician to appeal to women. Newly elected French president, Francois Hollande, made some pretty impressive promises to women. He has already delivered on the first with an equal number of men and women in his cabinet,

Let’s hope he keeps some of the rest of those promises and that Obama lives up to the hype that he’s currently spouting. If they do, this could be an interesting year for women.

Related articles

• Obama takes women’s issues from campaign trail to international stage – FOX News (foxnews.com)

Vogue promises to ban underage or ill models.

Vogue (British magazine) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

News for 3rd May taken from The Guardian.

The editors of the 19 editions of Vogue magazine worldwide have added their voices to efforts to tackle eating disorders and the use of underage girls in the modelling industry.

In a “health pact” published in their June issues, the editors jointly say they will not use models under the age of 16, or those they believe have an eating disorder, in an attempt to encourage a healthier attitude to body image within the fashion industry and among their readers.

The six-point pact states that the magazine will ensure that fashion models – in particular “younger girls” – are well cared for and given advice to help them better look after their wellbeing, in an attempt to address criticisms relating to the incidence of ill-health within the industry.

The initiative replicates existing guidance issued by the Council of Fashion Designers of America and the British Fashion Council to promote healthier behaviour in the modelling industry, but magazines have not customarily issued their own standards.

Models under 16 have been banned from appearing in both the London and New York fashion weeks, and American Vogue editor Anna Wintour and her British counterpart, Alexandra Shulman, have previously gone on record to criticise designers who supply very small clothes samples, which they believe encourages the use of too-skinny models – a practice criticised in the pact.

Jonathan Newhouse, chairman of Vogue publisher Condé Nast International, said: “Vogue editors around the world want the magazines to reflect their commitment to the health of the models who appear on the pages and the well-being of their readers.”

Shulman states in her editor’s letter: “As one of the fashion industry’s most powerful voices, Vogue has a unique opportunity to engage with relevant issues where we feel we can make a difference.”

The magazine will also ask modelling agents not to knowingly send them underage girls, and request that casting directors check models’ ages when casting shoots, shows and campaigns. They also call for healthier backstage working conditions at shows and shoots, including providing models with healthy food options and respecting their privacy.

The majority of models start their careers before age 16, most working unchaperoned and far from home. A recent survey by the Model Alliance, which advocates models’ rights, found that 86.8% of models have been asked to pose nude at a casting or job without advance notice.

Less than a third (29.1%)of those surveyed reported that they felt they could tell their agency if they were experiencing sexual harassment. More than two-thirds (68.3%) said they suffered from anxiety or depression.

Related articles

• British Vogue has a healthy new outlook (thisislondon.co.uk)
• Vogue bans skinny, underage models (abc.net.au)
• Vogue slaps a ban on underage models (bazaardaily.com)

‘Mad Men’ inspires a secretarial revival – and PAs can be proud again

News for 22 April 2012 has been taken from The Independent.

(Original heading: ’Mad Men’ inspires a secretarial revival)

Joan Holloway (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

They are the gatekeepers. Frequently shrewder than those they serve and always more knowledgeable, office secretaries are back in vogue. New evidence suggests that, spurred by powerful role models in the US TV series Mad Men, an increasing number of personal assistants, executive assistants and office managers are reviving the traditional job title.

A survey of more than 3,000 office PAs worldwide by the International Association of Administrative Professionals found that the number of administration staff who consider themselves “secretaries” has nearly doubled over the past two years. It attributed part of the shift to screenwriter Matthew Weiner’s depiction of Mad Men’s secretarial staff as powerful, attractive and emotionally astute, with inner knowledge of the workings of an office and constant access to the boss. According to the study, the number of secretaries had risen from eight per cent to nearly 15. The show, the organisation said, appears to “stoke nostalgia for the classic image of the American corporate secretary”.

Despite working in an ego-fuelled office full of sexist pigs, Mad Men’s Peggy Olsen wins numerous promotions during the first series. Joan Holloway is the shrewd head secretary who wields more power and commands more respect than most of the executive board. And Megan Draper’s emotional intelligence in the current series has made compelling viewing. This Wednesday is the 60th anniversary of Administrative Professionals Day and comes amid new evidence that the skills of top-level secretaries are now in such demand that the cream can command more than £363,000 a year.

Despite staff cuts in the financial sector, secretaries are becoming more aware of their worth. Figures released this week by the Association of Personal Assistants (APA) next week will show that more than 60 per cent of those working in British companies believe the importance of their role has grown in the past five years.

Gareth Osbourne, director of the APA, said: “The role of secretaries is no longer just confined to filing and managing the diary. Nowadays they have to be responsive to everything, even more so in a recession, where their value has been recognised. And more often than not they are expected to have a microcosm of every single attribute of those that they serve.”

Geoff Sims, managing director of Hays PA and Secretarial, said: “Shows like Mad Men have helped office administration to grow in stature. The discipline has evolved from the typing pool to secretaries. An increasing number of staff now work alongside celebrities, managing their lives. And we’re seeing more people coming in from other professional careers.”

Related articles

• Should We Be Offended That The Term ‘Secretary’ Is Making A Comeback? (thegloss.com)
• How-To: The Look of Mad Men’s Joan Holloway (bellasugar.com)
• Behind-the-Scenes Beauty Secrets of Mad Men (bellasugar.com)

‘Pinkstinks’ makes retailers rethink gender bias of toys

News for 21 April 2012 has been taken from The Guardian.

(Original heading: Why girls aren’t pretty in pink)

Children can be comically fierce in their ideas of which toys are or aren’t appropriate: “It’s for babies!” or “It’s for girls!” they will insist. But when, on a recent visit to a toy shop, Emma Moore’s daughter announced that farm animals were for boys, Emma was disappointed.

“All the signage was blue and there was a boy playing there,” says Emma, 40, and the mother of two daughters.

Other parents might just roll their eyes and move on, but not Emma. “When I had a second girl, the onslaught of pink rubbish piling into my house, and all the slogans, ‘Daddy’s little princess’ and so on, became even more noticeable,” she says. She and her twin sister Abi, who has two boys, were so angry about the gender division of children’s toys promoted by retailers that they decided to act.

The result was Pinkstinks, a campaign they set up four years ago to raise awareness of what they say is damaging gender stereotyping of children, and which this week won a Mumsnet-sponsored award for promoting body confidence in children. The sisters say they are thrilled, partly because they thought they were too radical for Mumsnet, but also because the accolade coincides with the launch of Slap, their new campaign, which is aimed at challenging the increasing tendency to target makeup at little girls.

Emma and Abi grew up in south-east London, not far from where they live now, and although their mother was active in the women’s movement and their stepfather was a Labour parliamentary candidate, no one expected the sisters to become activists. When they started Pinkstinks, “It was really challenging within our own family as well as in the wider world,” says Emma, who jokes about mothers running away from her at the school gate, presumably because she makes them feel awkward.

“Some of the presents Mum had given my daughters, I was like, really? A pink, plastic Disney castle? Are you sure?” she says. Abi chips in: “Vast swathes of people have accepted all this stuff as normal, and when we started questioning it, we were questioning ourselves as well.”

As the mother of two girls myself, I find this reassuring. We have pink duvet covers, pink scooters and a pink plastic piano. And when Emma describes, in a voice filled with scorn, sequin-covered trainers that come with a wand you pass over them to make a “brrring!” sound, I catch myself thinking they sound fun. This may show a lack of taste on my part, but I have chosen to go with the flow because I think disdain for mass-marketed pink plastic and cheap fashion often comes with a whiff of snobbery.

“I think it crosses class. I’ve been to extremely middle-class birthday parties that have been as pink, fluffy and ridiculous as any,” says Emma.

Their first targeted campaign, in December 2009, attacked the pink/blue colour-coding system used by the Early Learning Centre. Their outrage struck a chord, and they quickly found themselves on breakfast television and in newspapers around the world. “Would you put your son in a fairy dress? Why not”? one radio host asked them, while broadcaster Nina Myskow squared up to them on TV dressed in pink. The sisters say neither could have done it on her own. “You’ve got to be so strong to use your voice,” says Abi.

The sisters run Pinkstinks alongside their day jobs: Emma works for a health research company and Abi is a film-maker, working mainly for charities. Two volunteers have been recruited to keep an eye on social media, but otherwise this is it: two working mothers talking in the evenings via Skype. But they are influential. They have followings on Facebook and Twitter, and John Lewis and Marks & Spencer have responded quickly to criticism, removing a “girls” label from a pink Playmobil set and a “boys” label from a science kit.

We meet in Abi’s terraced house, where the table is covered with catalogues of children’s toys and clothing they use as props, showing me their least favourite items. A pink globe is Abi’s “most hated thing. The sea and the land and the girl and absolutely everything is pink.”

When they started campaigning, they were concerned that brightly coloured “boys” toys tended to focus on work and outdoor activity, while pink “girls” things were domestic and homely. But about a year ago they noticed a change of emphasis. Emma’s daughter Rebecca, then four, was given a makeup compact in a party bag. Emma threw it in the bin, but soon they began to see makeup everywhere, some of it labelled for girls as young as two and three.

“Girls’ toys are now very much about being in front of a mirror. Beauty parlours, makeup, brushing your hair,” Abi says, pointing to a catalogue featuring toddlers in a pink bedroom scene, hair dryers and vanity cases on the dressing table. Emma says: “Think for one minute about sitting your three-year-old down at one of these beauty tables and giving her a makeup set. What is that telling her? By the time she’s 16 or 17 she wants a boob job, her bum done, her vagina vajazzled.”

Slap, Pinkstinks’ newest campaign, calls on retailers to move makeup out of the pre-school bracket and to stop giving it away free with other products. But the campaign also, and less comfortably, targets parents who, Emma says, “must start thinking more about this, because if this isn’t the sexualisation of children, I don’t know what is.”

Cheryl Cole (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It is not just the mothers of girls who need to be aware of the trend, says Abi: “I don’t want my sons growing up in a world where they have a one-dimensional view of women, where Cheryl Cole, or whoever, is what we should all aspire to. No offence to Cheryl.”

Abi watches women’s football with her sons and makes a point of seeing films where the main characters are girls. The Golden Compass, an adaptation of Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights, is a favourite and she is looking forward to the forthcoming Brave – the first Pixar film with a female lead.

But while both women agree that boys, too, can be badly affected by the limited roles on offer, they see girls as the main victims. “We’re going backwards,” says Emma. “It’s all about looking hot,” says Abi, “there are teenage girls who will not leave the house without a full face of makeup on.”

Related articles

• Pinkstinks campaign calls for ban on sale of makeup toys to under eights (guardian.co.uk)
• We Like Pink (thebeverlyhillbabies.com)
• OMG! I’m Going to Be a Grandmother and I Hate Gender Marketing (blogher.com)
• 5 Reasons Not to Buy Your Daughter Pink Legos (money.usnews.com)

The Hunger Games: a blockbuster with a pro-feminist message

News for 3 April 2012 is taken from Women’s Views on News.

The Hunger Games, released earlier this year, is a sci-fi film based on a novel by American writer Suzanne Collins. In March, the movie grossed $152.5 million during its first weekend box office sales in the US, the third highest of all time. A pleasing result for a film that tackles totalitarianism, food politics and war.

But even more than that, the central character, 16 year-old Katniss Everdeen is a gutsy young woman who, after the death of their father, is forced to take on the ‘male’ role of provider by hunting with a bow and arrow. She shares few other traits with Diana the hunter.

Collins says she was inspired by TV surfing, in which the boundaries between war stories and game shows became ‘disturbingly blurred’; combined with the story of Theseus and gladiatorial games.

The Hunger Games takes place in the dystopian world of Panem, created after the US is destroyed by an apocalyptic event; with a wealthy Capitol and 12 surrounding, poor districts.

Katniss Everdene the heroine resides in District 12. There are obvious parallels with the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ of our own society, and the powerlessness of the (poor) majority.

As punishment for a previous rebellion, a boy and girl from each District between the ages of 12 and 18 are chosen as ‘tributes’ (participants) in the Hunger Games; a mandatory televised show in which they must fight to the death, until one victor remains.

Two other themes are self sacrifice – Katniss volunteers herself to take the place of her younger sister Prim, when her name is selected. And hope, which the President of Panem rightly sees as highly dangerous to the status quo.

And this is what makes Katniss a much more interesting and valuable role model for young women than the bland Twilight character, Bella, who spent her time mooning around after (kind of) guys.

Katniss is not sexualised. From the outset she says she will not marry or have children; nor is she prepared to have crushes on boys, fall in love, or deal with sex.

She tells her mentor, that ‘she doesn’t know how to make people like her.’ Yet because she volunteered, the audience and sponsors (after she shoots a well aimed arrow at their banquet when they’re ignoring her) notice, respect and sponsor her; a necessity to her survival.

Unlike Bella, Katniss doesn’t feel the need to be romantically ‘rescued’ (ie subjugated) by a man. In fact, she herself rescues Peeta, her male counterpart from District 12, when he is stabbed.

She chooses strategy over violence, assuming the role of ‘star-crossed’ lover with Peeta, when she sees that the tactic might save their lives. It does when a rule change states that two tributes from the same District can win as a pair.

Using her bow and arrow, she can provide food, a skill borne of the necessity of her extreme poverty. And rather than adopt the masculine strategy of killing other ‘tributes,’ she uses her wits to stay alive.

She also forms an alliance with Rue, a 12-year-old girl from District 11 who reminds her of sister Prim. Their alliance is short-lived when Rue is killed.

But when Katniss sings to her, covers her body with flowers and makes a defiant gesture to the cameras to register her disgust, it results in riots in District 11, thus making her both politically dangerous to the regime and vulnerable to its wrath.

She compounds this, when the couple are left as the final two tributes standing and the Gamemakers reverse the rule change forcing one to kill the other to win.

Gambling that the Gamemakers would rather have two winners rather than none, she offers Peeta some toxic ‘nightlock’ berries. Realizing they’re intent on suicide, the rule is then rescinded and they both become victors.

A strong theme is Katniss’s struggle with how to be true to herself in an environment that demands a stereotypical girl, a problem that most teenage girls face.

And in that respect the film offers worthwhile commentaries on how hard it is for young women to set their own romantic terms, personal responsibility and identity.

Finally, in volunteering herself to a potentially fatal experience at the Games, Katniss illustrates how love is a revolutionary force that is stronger than fear.

I for one hope this marks the release of more films giving out positive messages to young women, rather than the usual sappy romantic nonsense that films such as Twilight perpetuate.

Sadly an ideal that has been overlooked by many critics including the NY Times, who have criticised Katniss actor, Jennifer Lawrence’s ‘womanly figure’ for being too fat!

Related articles

• The Hunger Games Discussion – Part 1 (ptl2010.com)
• The Hunger Games Movie (whatsup465.wordpress.com)
• Hunger Games Left Me Starving (tamerietherton.com)
• How to Survive The Hunger Games Movie Premiere (bradsdeals.com)
• The Hunger Games (machita75.wordpress.com)

Ugandan women find new possibilities in art world

News for 2 April 2012 taken from Women’s eNews.

From literature and theater to music and art, women in Uganda are gaining social recognition. But playwright Adong Lucy Judith still had to take her play “Just Me, You and the Silence” outside the country to have it produced.

In the middle of a small street flanked by fragrant jacaranda trees blooming with purple flowers, a group of actors jostles for space with passersby and a succession of big, white government vehicles outside the Uganda Museum.

It could be just another street theater rehearsal in the capital. But it’s not. This one includes two women among the performers, a rarity in a society where women are often discouraged from seeking public attention.

When the Bayimba Cultural Foundation sent out calls for a street theater workshop, the two women–Moreen Duudu Hazel and Rehema Nanfuka–showed up. They didn’t know they had become pioneers in a challenging art form. It was just something they wanted to do.

Hazel and Nanfuka say sexual harassment is a problem when they perform on the streets of Kampala as well as in other towns.

“Guys were pulling my hand, saying, ‘I want this one, and I want that one,’” Hazel said, recalling a recent performance.

Both women said the other actors in their troop have helped contain the situations.

In 1990, Makerere University, the country’s leading academic institution, located in Kampala, introduced an affirmative action plan to increase women’s access to public universities.

Five years later, the country’s constitution was amended to say, “Women shall have the right to affirmative action for the purposes of redressing the imbalances created by history, tradition or custom.”

Twenty years later, female students had closed the gap with male counterparts in the humanities, especially in arts studies. At Makerere University’s January 2012 graduation, young women were 55 percent of those earning arts degrees.

But there’s still a gap outside school.

Positive Signs

With the exception of church choirs, women in the arts are still pushing for wider recognition. Positive signs exist that they are making progress.

One big one breakthrough came recently when the country’s curriculum-setting agency added “A Season of Mirth” by Ugandan writer Regina Amollo to the list of books for studying literature in English. It’s still listed among the non-examinable texts, which are meant for leisure and not for obligatory study in school.

Even so, women see it as a breakthrough in the male domination of Ugandan literature.

Creative writing has also spurred political discussion of gender issues in Uganda. Most notable was “Beyond the Dance,” a 2009 anthology of short fiction and poetry about female genital mutilation.

Artist Sarah Tshila fuses spoken word poetry, African traditional music and hip-hop.

In 2007, the BBC World Service’s talent search program, “The Next Big Thing,” named her as one of the 20 best unsigned artists in the world. In August of the same year, she recorded her first album, “Sipping From The Nile.”

“This was great positive feedback,” she says. “It opened doors for me internationally.”

Tshila says that the low number of women in the performing arts is not always a deliberate exclusion.

“Sometimes it is about the way we’ve been raised and the lack of courage to pursue our dreams,” she says.

Related articles

• Cultural etiquette – or please don’t be offended (livelywallflower.wordpress.com)
• Looking back at the rise of a Ugandan woman (www.monitor.co.ug)
• Ugandan women who have made a mark (www.newvision.co.ug)

INDIA: Private toilets for rural women continue to transform lives

News for 30 March 2012 was taken from Women’s News Network.

A new women’s movement has been building in rural India. It’s demanding something never considered before for women who often live in areas without adequate or clean running water. Often these are homes with that have no vented heating or adequate flooring. The demand for decent toilet facilities is a real and growing concern in a region where many rural women have been left out with no other option than to use the ‘open outdoors’ as their only toilets – or community toilets (such as the one pictured).

Western style bathrooms with baths and toilets in rural India are considered by most to be a complete luxury. The idea of bringing a toilet into the home though has come with a history of resistance by those who have a justified worry about proper home sanitation.

Lack of toilet facilities is not only a rural problem. More than two dozen urban women in the central India city of Nagpur recently staged an ‘Occupy men’s toilets’ protest demanding that they get their own fair share of toilets to use. They’re now calling for more ‘clean and usable’ private toilets for women who live in urban India.

It may seem obvious, but the persistent question is: why are bathroom facilities such a problem in India? The answer comes swiftly from advocates. It’s because private toilets most often don’t exist at all for those who are living at the very lowest level of Indian society. Walking out onto open land with what can sometimes add up to long distances to relieve themselves, women living in rural regions are often forced to look far outside the home for any kind of available privacy during the day or night.

The trek to relieve oneself is not a simple act. It’s not centered around safety or sanitation alone. It can also cause a women or girl to face snakes, spiders and other animals, especially at night. It can also provide the perfect opportunity for a physical assault or in the worst case, rape, where a nighttime search for privacy can cause a woman to face intensified danger.

Lack of running water outside is also a challenge contributing to a woman’s inability to wash her hands. This can compromise a woman’s health, and the health of her children, as lack of sanitation can come with a likelihood of exposure to numerous fecal-borne diseases causing dysentery.

“Open defecation is one of the major causes of disease anywhere in the world. Faeces provides the perfect breeding ground for a wide variety of parasites and flies, which invariably settle on hands, eyes and food, all obvious vectors for the transmission of disease. As the same areas are used daily, regular contact with parasites makes the transmission of disease from ground to human inevitable,” says the United Nations Development report by the U.K. based charity called Whenever the Need.

A Rebel Bride Demands a Toilet

20-year-old newlywed Anita Bai Narre lives in Central India, in the Madhya Pradesh region. Her home is in the small agricultural village of Jheetudhana, approximately 180km (approximately 112 Miles) from the region’s capital city of Bhopal.

“I will not return until he builds me a toilet!” said Anita the day after she married her new husband Shivram Narre. “I told him to construct a toilet immediately,” Anita recently shared during a one-on-one interview with WNN – Women News Network. “Otherwise it would not be possible for me to stay in the house,” she continued.

“It was a real shock for me,” shared Anita’s husband Shivram. “I never thought that a woman could do this [leave] on the first night of her marriage,” he added.

Constructing the toilet in only one week Shivram used all his savings as he worked non-stop to build his wife an private house bathroom. Along with Shivram’s funding, came financial support from the local village panchayat (village council) in Jheetudhana.

Now Anita Narre has become a household name in India. Her grit and commitment to getting an her own toilet has brought high demands for toilets throughout the region. Known as India’s ‘tribal belt,’ Anita’s efforts have now made Jheetudhana village one of the ‘open-defecation free zones’ in India.

“Every woman has a right to live a dignified life and they should fight for it!” says Anita.

As the oldest in the family, with one brother and six sisters, Anita had parents who were both school teachers. As a young girl her family was very lucky. They had an indoor toilet. So when Anita married Shivram she refused to do what most other wives in rural India are forced to do everyday, go outside and search for a safe and private place when nature calls.

“Women in India want toilets and not mobile [temporary toilet facilities]. But it is difficult for men to understand…,” Anita outlined. The gender divide between men and women on the issue has been an uphill climb.

Related articles

• India woman leaves home for lack of toilet (kractivist.wordpress.com)
• India woman protests over toilet (bbc.co.uk)
• Madhya Pradesh woman awarded for leading ‘toilet revolution’ (ndtv.com)
• India: bride awarded US$ 10,000 for demanding toilet after marriage (sanitationupdates.wordpress.com)
• Indian Woman Rewarded For Sparking ‘Toilet Revolution’ (kayceeweezy.wordpress.com)
• Toilet revolution (missunderstoodgenius.wordpress.com)
• Bride, who demanded toilet after marriage, rewarded (thehindu.com)

Tulisa is feminism’s new hero

News for 24 March 2012 has been taken from The Guardian.

Viewed from its highest point, the internet is a landscape of celebrity sex tapes. Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton and Kim Kardashian made the genre famous. Their careers to date have still to escape the shadow of those dark videos – and still the films keep coming.

Last week, a clip starring the 23-year-old X Factor judge Tulisa Contostavlos and an apparently disembodied penis appeared online. But, in an unprecedented move, during the ensuing tabloid racket and the censorious blogs with their variations on the word “slut”, Tulisa responded with a new video.

Also shot in dim light, in what looks like the corridor of her flat, she told fans “her side of the story”.

“When you share an intimate moment with someone you love, that you care about and trust,” she said, holding up her holiday pictures of ex-boyfriend Justin Edwards, the man who leaked the clip, “you never imagine that at any point it will be shared with people around the world.”

She added: “It’s a pretty tough time for me, but I don’t feel I should be the one to take the heat for it. This is something he took upon himself, to put the footage online… I’m not going to sit here and be violated or taken advantage of.”

She tweeted a link on Wednesday; watching it I whooped out loud. I did so because, as well as being a threat to the traditional post-sex tape narrative, where the woman is quietly disgraced, this was an unlikely feminist moment. A noisy, true, important message to Tulisa’s teenage fans. They may well have some personal experience of this kind off thing – 40% of teenagers have texted naked pictures of themselves or received pictures of their acquaintances. In a survey of 11,000 teens, aged 11-14, four in 10 thought it was “appropriate” to forward their friends’ pictures of classmates topless: the survey showed a significant shift from a time when young people merely viewed internet pornography, to today, when they create it.

Much has changed, too, since Anderson’s day, when the stars of a sex tape, baby oiled, siliconed and candlelit, were in on it together: however coy the couple might have been when a film went viral, the woman was probably complicit in its release. In order for a tape to leak 10 years ago, an actual “tape” would physically have to change hands. Today, sex tapes (sex MP4s? Sex mov.files?) can be filmed covertly and lurk on many boys’ iPhones, but the notoriety that the woman must live with when they’re screened remains.

As much as I whooped at Tulisa’s video, I can only imagine how uplifting it might have been for young people to watch; people like “A”, a girl I know whose teenage years were torturous because an ex-boyfriend forwarded intimate pictures of her to his new girlfriend, who went on to publish them online.

The pictures inspired violent bullying, led to weeks off school, friends lost and exams failed. When she tried to change schools her teacher recommended against it, sighing that a move wouldn’t be enough – the pictures had percolated the whole town. The pictures remain there, I’m sure, engraved on the internet like initials on a desk. A’s ex-boyfriend, incidentally, left for sixth form a hero.

Sex tapes are not uncommon, but what is rare is for their female star to be unapologetic on their release. To discuss ideas of shame, intimacy, consent and privacy, instead of agreeing to a sad-faced interview in the Sun, pictured in polo-neck and natural makeup to denote modesty – that’s unusual.

There’s no shame in happy sex, Tulisa asserts. The shame should lie with the person who uses it as currency against his partner’s wishes, who uses a record of it as a weapon. She’s not in the wrong for having sex, for enjoying sex, or for being filmed – her (until now anonymous) ex should be ashamed for betraying her, embarrassing her and attempting to damage her career.

And to broadcast this message on her own terms to “tell her side of the story” without the firm, clammy hand of a manager or editor influencing her words, does a lot to chip away at our solid wall of cynicism. After all, much of the attraction of a celebrity sex tape is the rare opportunity to see a star un-PRed – the “real” them.

It’s always fascinating when a celebrity reclaims the power of a scandal, ripping it from the claws of the media, then handing it back, reshaped.

Like Max Mosley, who used the News of the World’s exposé of his S&M parties with prostitutes to first sue the paper for breaching his privacy, then bring a case against the UK’s privacy laws in an attempt to force the press to warn subjects before publishing stories about them, Tulisa has bitten back.

In today’s muddy, laddie world, we take our feminist moments where we find them. Just as it was exciting to hear celebrities taking on the press during the Leveson inquiry, it’s thrilling to watch Tulisa take revenge on both the man who exploited her and the commentators who passed judgment. And using the tools most often exploited to hurt girls (Twitter, where hashtags like ‘#iHateWomen’ trend, and YouTube, under each video a stained ribbon of sexist comments) in order to deliver her message too.

Imagine if every shamed female celebrity, every reality star pictured smoking while pregnant, every untoned actress holidaying in a bikini, were to do the same. A high-pitched cacophony of raging women, broadcasting on YouTube, their hair slightly fallen after a day dodging doorsteppers. Women off the telly but without autocues, reminding us that they go deeper than an image, or than a simple statement from their manager.

At a time when our privacy seems to be leaking out from between our clasped hands, with Google revealing plans to track our movements across the vast, bumpy map of the web and Twitter admitting that it grabs users’ address book data, Tulisa’s is a modern lesson in image management.

When embarrassing information leaves your control today it’s not just your family that might see it. It’s not just a diary left open on a bed, a sheaf of nude beach snaps forgotten on the counter, it’s information that the whole world can access.

When this happens (and celebrities, darlings, it will) instead of hiding away, or reading out the same scripted apology we’ve heard a thousand times, one that “regrets” and “takes responsibility for actions”, one that says sorry for “letting down fans”, Tulisa’s is a guide to guerrilla action.

By reclaiming the internet tools, by taking ownership of the event, by speaking out “in her own words” and refusing to be shamed, she’s sketched out plans that every scandalous soap star and broken politician can follow. Inside, I’m still whooping.

Watch the video Tulisa released.

Blog extra: We ‘pinned’ this story two days ago.

Related articles

• Tulisa Contostavlos’ Ex Denies Leaking Sex Tape (celebs.gather.com)
• “Tulisa persuaded me that we should film ourselves” – Justin Edwards appears in court over THAT sex tape (mirror.co.uk)
• Uk News: N-dubz Star’s Former Lover Appears in Court Over “Leaked” Sex Tape Antics (madnewsuk.com)
• “You haven’t got to say sorry to anyone” – celebs come out in support of Tulisa on Twitter (mirror.co.uk)