Last week, the latest incidence of parliamentary sexism occurred in the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature. Reports noted that the DA’s deputy provincial leader, Jane Moloisi-Sithole, was called out by an ANC MP for allegedly dressing like a prostitute. The DA walked out when its leader, Anthony Benadie, was ordered from the Chamber by the Speaker who […]
patriarchy
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Do men deserve any praise?
As I hopped onto the taxi this morning, I spotted a man peeing on the side of the road. At that moment, as someone who is anti peeing on the side of anything, toilet seat included, I just swelled up with rage. I was also listening to a breakfast radio show as they spoke about […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence, News/Politics
Emma Watson’s HeForShe campaign just what we need
Emma Watson invited men into “the movement” and the feminist world is in uproar — split into the yay and naysayers. It’s even gone to the extent of fractures along racial (according to one blogger it’s white feminists who support her), regional or even socio-economic background. But identity aside there is some good and bad […]
Posted inEnvironment, Lifestyle
‘Maleficent’: A sea-change in popular culture
Maleficent (Disney 2014; directed by Robert Stromberg) is a magnificent film, and it almost seems more than fortuitous that the eponymous, powerful faerie is not called Malevolent, but bears a name that rhymes with “magnificent”. Judging by this recent re-imagining of the fairy tale, Sleeping Beauty, which was rendered in its classic Disney animated movie […]
Posted inGender violence
Men that rape are our fathers, lovers
By now, people are familiar with why men rape. Yes it is for power and control, it is a means of exercising masculine entitlement and privilege and it is a means of displacing vulnerability. For me, the more interesting question is: How do men rape? How is rape enabled within our homes, communities and societies? […]
Posted inEquality, Lifestyle
Patriarchy bad for men too
“Who’s your daddy?” This is the infamous slogan of commercialised intimacy. A masculine Mandingo demands an answer, while his submissive remnant of a woman is supposed to respond with “Yes, you are my daddy!” Eric Zorn deconstructed the phrase in a piece in the Chicago Tribune. He described it as “a boastful claim of dominance […]
Posted inEquality, General
Enough about penises – let’s talk about c*nt.
While the world is only just coming to terms with saying the word vagina out loud, cunt remains a term that takes people’s breath away as they cringe at the sheer power it contains. Pushed underground, banished from conventional language, cunt has long since been appropriated by patriarchs and misogynists and used as an utterance […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
The peaceful village illusion
By Zimbini Ogle Send your children to the villages, they will be taught respect and dignity. The village life will inculcate good principles and life is peaceful in the villages, we were told. Yes Khaya Dlanga I agree with you on the violence in villages today. I remember the stories about how peaceful it was: […]
Posted inEquality
The flipside of feminism gevaar
I recently stumbled upon a video clip about the book The Flipside of Feminism: What Conservative Women Know — and Men Can’t Say (2011) written by two American women, Phyllis Schlafly and Suzanne Venker. The fact that they are white, privileged and conservative is important. If there was any furore about the book I missed […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
What do men talk about?
Recently I participated in a workshop about curriculum review on teaching gender and security to military, police and prison officers in southern Africa. I became intrigued by how one facilitator on a session on “Men, Masculinities and Security/Defence”, subverted the “Bechdel Test” to provoke a conversation from the audience about how patriarchy silences and punishes […]
Posted inEquality, Gender violence
Beyond the noise: Acting against rape
I am a panellist on SABC2’s Big Debate. The subject is violence against women and the discussions dense with the mismatch of ideas. A sample: Satanism stalks our schools. We live in a demoncrazy — not a democracy. Women who wear 3cm skirts abuse men. Patriarchy is deeply rooted in our lives and thinking. The […]
Posted inGeneral, News/Politics
Guns, patriarchy and violence against women
In Ridley Scott’s (for a male director) astonishingly feminist film, Thelma and Louise (1991), there is a scene-sequence that graphically captures the indissoluble connection between patriarchal men and guns. And, at the same time, it shows how much the vaunted power of patriarchal men depends on their guns. The scene-sequence commences at that point in […]