Critical Survival Journals by Serdar Ayvaz

survival lounge 000 critical journals Continuous semester assignment. It is about developing and discussing your own voice towards topics related to the survival lounge and feminist discourses.

Marion Deuchars

* participants

Allan_Mohammad_ Annisa_Natasha Nurul_ Ayvaz_Serdar_ Birgül_Ilayda_ Durgut_Neside Sevinc_ Grinberg_Galina_ Gür_Sena_ Hartl_Christine_ Ibrahim_Rowaa_ Jacobs_Gabriel_ Katya_Kropacheva_ Leicht_Antonia_ Martakos_Galiatsatos Emmanouil_ Myronchuk_Iryna_ Nguyen_Elise_ Orellana_Sofia_ Rigby_Miranda_ Schwarzenberger_Laura_ Schweizer_Nikita_ Seyedehkosar_Asghari_ Thrän_Neele_ Tildem_Kirtak_ Ubeid_Rima_ Weyrauch_Leoni_ Zaripova_Veronika_

THE CRITICAL JOURNAL SoSe 20

Survival Lounge

Mohammad Allan

Killjoy

Equality

Communicating

Humbleness

When you expose a problem you pose a problem. It might then be assumed that the problem would go away if you would just stop talking about or if you went away

Women’s rights is not only an abstraction, a cause; it is also a personal affair. It is not only about us; it is also about me and you. Just the two of us. -Toni Morrison

“Sometimes the words we leave unspoken are the most important ones that should have been said” Vi Keeland

“- Pride makes us artificial. Humility makes us real.” Thomas Merton “- Humility is nothing but truth, and pride is nothing but lying.” St. Vincent de Paul

Killjoy Tool No. 07

1. GENDER -BASED ROLES ASSIGNMENT The goal is to a white picket your newspaper your lovely wife

own a house with a frontyard that has fence, where you would enjoy reading brought to you by your dog Lucy while bakes you your favorite. An apple pie

BUT, IS THAT WHAT YOU REALLY WANT? Men go to work to home to raise the belongs. Successfull Get a loan to put in a job Men go to work to home to raise the belongs. Successfull Get a loan to put in a job Men go to work to home to raise the belongs. Successfull Get a loan to put in a job Men go to work to home to raise the belongs. Successfull Get a loan to put in a job

put food on the table. kids. The kitchen is marriage starts in buy your dream only because you put food on the table. kids. The kitchen is marriage starts in buy your dream only because you put food on the table. kids. The kitchen is marriage starts in buy your dream only because you put food on the table. kids. The kitchen is marriage starts in buy your dream only because you

Women stay where she the kitchen. and stay have to. Women stay where she the kitchen. and stay have to. Women stay where she the kitchen. and stay have to. Women stay where she the kitchen. and stay have to.

BUY YOUR OWN HOUSE NOW. PAY FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE LATER. WORK. BUY. CONSUME. DIE.

Men go to work to put food on the table. Women stay home to raise the kids. The kitchen is where she belongs. Successfull marriage starts in the kitchen. Get a loan to buy your dream and stay put in a job only because you have to. The American dream is to have a wife, 2 kids and a dog with a cosy house in the suburbs where you can grow old and enjoy peacefulness and quietness

THE IS

ROAD TO THROUGH

A MANâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S HEART HIS STOMACHE

Instructions and tips: - Any one of us, including ourselves, could be a threat â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and negotiate life after coronavirus - Post pandemic life will not be the same anymore - More spacious buildings and spaces to practice social distancing are needed - A new layout for places like restaurants is also needed - Human interaction will and should be compromised? - These solutions / measures taken are to prevent the spread of the virus ideal - Limiting the amount of people sitting together. - Is technology taken a step further to develop connectivitiy yet disconnecting us? - Utilizing modularity in social distancing. Defining margins and borders for each individual - Avoid going out, socialise less and more slowly - Remember to dress in warmer clothes because more windows will be open to have a better ventilation - Working hours will be extended and will be more flexible - You probably will not see the entire staff of your company at the same time again - A social distance of 2 meters will be a part of your own space. Your own safe bubble. Respect it. Respect othersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; as well.

- Limit close contact with others outside your household in indoor and outdoor spaces. Since people can spread the virus before they know they are sick. - Family members should leave only when absolutely necessary. Essential errands include going to the grocery store, pharmacy, or medical appointments that cannot be delayed (e.g., infants or individuals with serious health conditions in need of aid). If you must leave the house, please do the following:

- Choose one or two family members who are not at a higher risk to run the essential errands. Wear a cloth face covering, avoid crowds, practice social distancing, and follow these recommended tips for running errands. Use forms of transportation that minimize close contact with others (e.g., biking, walking, driving or riding by car either alone or with household members).

DO WE NEED MORE SPACIOUS PLACES OR DO WE COMPROMISE THE CAPACITY OF THEM If necessary to use public transportation: Maintain a 6-foot distance from other passengers as much as possible. Avoid touching high-touch surfaces such as handrails.

Clean your hands as soon as possible after the trip. If necessary to ride in a car with members of different households.

LEAVE A DISTANCE OF 2 METERS

Limit close contact and create space between others in the vehicle as possible. Improve air flow in the car by opening the window or placing air conditioning on nonrecirculation mode. Wash your hands immediately after you return home. Maintain as much physical distance as possible with those at higher risk in the home. For example, avoid hugging, kissing, or sharing food or drinks. Provide a separate bedroom and bathroom for the person who is sick, if possible. If you cannot provide a separate room and bathroom, try to separate them from other household members as much as possible.

If possible, have only one person in the household take care of the person who is sick. This caregiver should be someone who is not at higher risk for severe illness and should minimize contact with other people in the household. Identify a different caregiver for other members of the household who require help with cleaning, bathing, or other daily tasks. If possible, maintain 6 feet between the person who is sick and other family or household members. If you need to share a bedroom with someone who is sick, make sure the room has good air flow. Open the window and turn on a fan to bring in and circulate fresh air if possible.

NEW TYPOLOGIES FOR ASSEMBLY S P A C E S ?

If you need to share a bathroom with someone who is sick, the person who is sick should clean and disinfect the frequently touched surfaces in the bathroom after each use. Open outside doors and windows before entering and use ventilating fans to increase air circulation in the area. Wait as long as possible before entering the room to clean and disinfect or to use the bathroom. If you are sick, do not help prepare food.

HOW WILL THESE REGULATIONS AFFECT THE URBAN CONTEXT?

We are still learning about the virus that causes COVID-19, but it appears that it can spread from people to animals in some situations. A small number of pets worldwide, including cats and dogs, have been reportedexternal icon to be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19, mostly after close contact with people with COVID-19.

Infected pets might get sick or they might not have any symptoms. Of the pets that have gotten sick, most only had mild illness and fully recovered. Because there is a small risk that people with COVID-19 could spread the virus to animals, CDC recommends that pet owners limit their pet’s interaction with people outside their household. Keep cats indoors when possible and do not let them roam freely outside. Walk dogs on a leash at least 6 feet (2 meters) away from others. Avoid public places where a large number of people gather. Do not put face coverings on pets. Covering a pet’s face could harm them. There is no evidence that the virus can spread to people from the skin, fur, or hair of pets. Do not wipe or bathe your pet with chemical disinfectants, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, or any other products not approved for animal use.

If you are sick with COVID-19 (either suspected or confirmed by a test), you should restrict contact with your pets and other animals, just like you would with people.

SHOULD WE RECONSIDER THE DESIGN STANDARDS TO ADAPT TO THE NEW HEALTH RESTRICTIONS? Until we know more about this virus, people sick with COVID-19 should avoid contact with pets and other animals. When possible, have another member of your household care for your pets while you are sick. If you must care for your pet or be around animals while you are sick, wear a cloth face covering and wash your hands before and after you interact with them. In the United States, there is no evidence that animals are playing a significant role in the spread of COVID-19.

Wash your hands after handling animals, their food, waste, or supplies. Practice good pet hygiene and clean up after pets properly. Talk to your veterinarian if you have questions about your pet’s health. Be aware that children 5 years of age and younger, people with weakened immune systems, and people 65 years of age and older are more likely to get sick from germs some animals can carry. If your pet tests positive for the virus that causes COVID-19, isolate the pet from everyone else, including other pets. Do not wipe or bathe your pet with chemical disinfectants, alcohol, hydrogen peroxide, or any other products not approved for animal use.

MODULARITY IS A KEY Only a few pets have been confirmed to be infected with the virus that causes COVID-19. Some pets did not show any signs of illness, but those pets that did get sick all had mild disease that could be taken care of at home. None have died from the infection.

- A social distance of 2 meters will be a part of your own space. Your own safe bubble. Respect it. Respect others’ as well. - A social distance of 2 meters will be a part of your own space. Your own safe bubble. Respect it. Respect others’ as well.

- Limit close contact with others outside your household in indoor and outdoor spaces. Since people can spread the virus before they know they are sick. Family members should leave only when absolutely necessary.

Clean your hands as soon as possible after the trip. If necessary to ride in a car with members of different households. Limit close contact and create space between others in the vehicle as possible. Improve air flow in the car by opening the window or placing air conditioning on non-recirculation mode. Wash your hands immediately after you return home. Maintain as much physical distance as possible with those at higher risk in the home. For example, avoid hugging, kissing, or sharing food or drinks. Provide a separate bedroom and bathroom for the person who is sick, if possible. If you cannot provide a separate room and bathroom, try to separate them from other household members as much as possible. Keep people at higher risk separated from anyone who is sick.

Choose one or two family members who are not at a higher risk to run the essential errands. Wear a cloth face covering, avoid crowds, practice social distancing, and follow these recommended tips for running errands. If feasible, use forms of transportation that minimize close contact with others (e.g., biking, walking, driving or riding by car either alone or with household members). If necessary to use public transportation: Maintain a 6-foot distance from other passengers as much as possible. Avoid touching hightouch surfaces such as handrails, and wash hands or use hand sanitizers . Clean your hands as soon as possible after the trip. If necessary to ride in a car with members of different households. Limit close contact and create space between others

IS THIS A “PERMANENT” S O L U T I O N ? Choose one or two family members who are not at a higher risk to run the essential errands. Wear a cloth face covering, avoid crowds, practice social distancing, and follow these recommended tips for running errands. If feasible, use forms of transportation that minimize close contact with others (e.g., biking, walking, driving or riding by car either alone or with household members). If necessary to use public transportation: Maintain a 6-foot distance from other passengers as much as possible. Avoid touching hightouch surfaces such as handrails, and wash hands or use hand sanitizers . Clean your hands as soon as possible after the trip. If necessary to ride in a car with members of different households. Limit close contact and create space between others in the vehicle as possible.

PHYSICAL OR

SOCIAL

DISTANCE DISTANCE?

E X P E R I E N C E THE FEELING OF WALKING INTO A CROWDED COFFEE HOUSE AGAIN?

DIFFERENT OF SOCIAL

KIND LIFE?

DID THIS PANDEMIC ACCELERATE WHAT TECHNOLOGY WAS ALREADY DOING?

3. POSTHUMANISM ARCHITECTURE: ARCHITECTURE AS AN EXCLUSIVE TOOL FOR MANKIND ONLY Posthumanism is an aesthetic and epistemological response to technological modernization. It embraces the antiindividualist consequences of technological progress and, in the case of Hannes Meyer, attempts to turn the perceptual effects of modernity to explictly collectivist sociopoltical ends. The posthuman discourse is not about saying “let’s get rid of humans,” but rather “let’s move humans away from the center of our inquiry.” The work on the posthuman helped me look at this Anthropocene moment as an opportunity for architects to consider building for multiple species, building with a broader idea of what life forms should be treated as citizens, and what life forms should be given habitation. Posthumanism is an aesthetic and epistemological response to technological modernization. It embraces the anti-individualist consequences of technological progress and, in the case of Hannes Meyer, attempts to turn the perceptual effects of modernity to explictly collectivist sociopoltical ends. The posthuman discourse is not about saying “let’s get rid of humans,” but rather “let’s move humans away from the center of our inquiry.” The work on the posthuman helped me look at this Anthropocene moment as an opportunity for architects to consider building for multiple species, building with a broader idea of what life forms should be treated as citizens, and what life forms should be given habitation.

SHOULD WE LOSE THE COMPLEXITY THAT FEEDS OUR ARROGANCE AND ADAPT A MORE HUMBLE APPROACH THAT INCLUDES MORE ENGAGEMENT? THE STARCHITECT IMAGE

Several high-profile architects in the media recently perpetuate an image of architects as ethically insensitive, competitively destructive and socially tone-deaf. It is not only the public that is fed up with this idea of The Architect, but also the profession itself. Having watched ourselves increasingly backed into the corner of aesthetic elitism, we are now more interested in models of practice that do away with the egos and the glamorous buildings they are associated with. Collaboration, open-source networking, non-hierarchical practices, entrepreneurialism, streamlined production and profit-sharing do away with the singular author. We need to focus on how our buildings perform socially, environmentally and economically over the long term. We are ready to fly under the radar to infiltrate larger spheres of influence.

As a professional architect, I feel as if architecture school has sadly imbued me with elitism, arrogance and senseless pride. I felt nothing like this before I started. I just wanted to draw beautiful houses and it was not about me; it was about making others happy. That is why I am leaving the profession; I wish to reconnect with selflessness. We must teach and reward less glamour, arrogance, jealousy and exuberance. Exchange it for humility and generosity, and the market will swiftly change toward more collaborative architecture. TAD GRODZKI

Sadly, the architectural press often goes along with the notion that buildings are sculptural art objects and symbols of the owner’s importance. But these architects who value habitability and sustainability over ego are worthy of attention and support. Seek them out. M A F A L D A SAMUELSSON-GAMBOA

The moment we switch to an environmental considerate approach, we start seeing ourselves as a part of the eco system rather than a superior species that dictates and sees nature as a dedicated tool for development. The health of our ecosystem depends to a large degree upon the health of our insect populations. They pollinate our plants, provide nutrients for bird species, agriculture and other macrofauna and participate in the complex web of a resilient eco-system. And yet urbanism and insect habitats struggle to synthetically coexist. Enter the insect house. We don’t see many insect homes in or around the Houston Tx area, but many of our readers live in urban areas where the plight of the local insect population is a bit more dire.

THE POTENTIAL OF DIY ARCHITECTURE

Beyond the selfie Paul Downton Nature is fractal. Each part of it is a microcosm of the larger whole. An urbanism that gave priority to the needs of nature and the requirements of nonhuman species would itself need to be fractal and support and nurture the essential functions of natural systems. To some degree it would need to be codified, just as we codify the expectations we have of our artificial human habitat, and that means establishing appropriate design guidelines, rules and regulations. If this agenda is to be taken seriously (and why shouldn’t it?), every city and town on Earth will need to develop such guidelines— to be acted upon as a result of both sensible persuasion (through the political process) and as a response to non-negotiable demands (of ecological necessity). Nature may be astonishingly responsive and receptive, but it does not negotiate

images from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under public domain image

...or here?

man o w a Why is red here... pictu

re...

ot he

But n

road signs in Germany?

letâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s talk about

I cannot really conclude. But why conclude anyway, when one can make a comparison with other road signs in Europe?

It gets me thinking: Why is a woman only featured in a pedestrian lane sign? Is it because transportation means are mostly operated by men? Or because, subsequently, the main beneficiary of the signs are also men? Is it because women are deemed more vulnerable... and thus represent well the vulnerability of pedestrians in a world of motor vehicles?

From looking through a catalog of German road signs, I found out that, well, walking with that child is all she does. All other signs featuring a human are represented by a generic person in slender figure, obviously not in a skirt.

Despite seeing her quite frequently, I wonder what else she does apart from that. Maybe playing football or riding a horse?

I use pedestrian lanes a lot. Consequently, the sign of what I interpret as a woman (because of the skirt) walking with a child comes to my visual field many times too.

Denmark

Germany

Italy

Poland

Slovakia

Swiss & Lichtenstein

Czech Republic

France

Iceland

Norway

Russia & Belarus

Sweden

Turkey

Slovenia

Portugal

Luxembourg

Greece

Estonia

images from Wikimedia Commons, licensed under public domain image

Belgium

Austria

Ukraine

Spain

Romania

Netherlands

Hungary

Finland

pedestrian signs in Germany?

let‘s talk about

But is an icon really just an icon?

Ah... Isn‘t it just an icon? Why bother?

I continue to think and somehow cannot find any answer still.

Again, it gets me thinking: Is any representation better than no representation at all? If we are to not ‚genderize‘ the signs, what will be the most suitable kind of representation? Will it be back to the ‚man‘ silhouette again? Oh! Are these countries, in fact, already trying to be genderneutral in the first place?

On the other side, just like Germany, all other countries do not feature women in their other road signs.

Interestingly, not that many countries in Europe use a representation of woman in their pedestrian signs. Besides Germany, only Estonia, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Turkey join the team.

images from the video ‘Be A Lady They Said’

ROLES R

per-form

helps to raise your voice

dance

and for others move

for you

protest

‘’Dominance functions best in a culture of disconnections and fragmentations,” Sexual Politics of Meat: A Vegetarian Feminist Critical Theory by Carol Adams

Cows are dosed with recombinant bovine growth hormone (rBGH) to increase milk production and are raped by either (what is known in the industry as) rape racks or put in enclosures with several bulls who will brutally attack her.Most milk, despite what most of us are aware of, is acquired like this (at least in the western world). The babies (calves but babies still) are taken away so that the milk can be given to humans and cows take on a lifetime of continuous sexual intrusion – rape and exploitation. Sound familiar? However, the fact that it’s a different kind of being in pain leads us to believe that this is acceptable.

The goal in political movements such as feminism is to protect those who are perceived as weaker and to rebel against dominant cultures. This also follows the same logic as xenophobia, racism and misogyny, repeating the idea that one type of being is superior making the other inferior by nature. Both movements deal with objectification and power dynamics.

The objectification of women is used notoriously by patriarchal powers. However the general public tend to stay oblivious to the fact that animals and women are reduced to being treated like pieces of meat (literally in animal cases) in the ways that they are objectified, manipulated and abused. We often refer to ill-treatment as being “treated like an animal” without considering that animals are literally treated like animals in inhumane ways that humans would never stand for.

‘’The topless man on the beach looks like a house without curtains. It is either for sale or for rent.’’

‘’Of course, there are also bad women, who commit violence, abuse rape, commit crimes. But remember, a father and a man raise those women.So they deserve respect.‘’

‘’When I come home, if my husband did not cook, I get pissed off.’’

‘’What was it, women harassed the man who went home from work at night? The woman does this by nature, my friend, you will learn to keep your honor.’’

‘’My husband can work if he wants to.’’

'Let the man know his place': became a popular social media campaign on Twitter by women who oppose sexist discourses in Turkey. June, 2020

This type of approach forces men to think from a place they have never been exposed to, and in a social structure that is a nighmare for women, it produces both tragicomic and the kind of humor you would like to be with, by rebuilding and ironically re-established sexism and discrimination.

"...on Twitter, I have seen tweets such as ‘women should not work, should not laugh loudly, and should not go to universities which are like prostitution centers ’ mostly by people whom we would call conservative. I thought that the best reaction could be given by teasing it. The thing that bothers me is especially seeing women who actually support them. "

The user who started the first tweet:

11th May, Entry #1 Shout out to all who celebrate women just because they are women. There are not so many. Expectations are a small part of being human, but expectations from a specific gender is becoming crueler as time evolves. Some activities are still believed as cannot be done by women and walking around was one of them only a short time ago. Thanks to Rebecca Solnit, Lauren Elkin, and many others… they walked around and wrote about it. About the women who were out there on streets when it was believed as cannot be done by women.

24th May, Entry #2 Shout out to all who discuss about feminism and its every aspect and the areas it embraces or not. There are too many. All genders, non-binary, or only being human is completely accepted. Or is it not? How transfeminism is different than just feminism? Or does it actually cover that too? Couple of days ago, I heard a cis-male friend of mine telling me about how feminism is quite divided in itself and how it is not capable of doing any change… like any other political or philosophical ideas. I thanked him for opening himself for this kind of a discussion. Because discussing feminism and women and including women while doing it is something you can thank for, especially if you are coming from a country where only men talks about women and try taking decisions (ex. Abortion). Men explain things to me. And again, thanks to Rebecca Solnit, we are aware of it now more than ever. Is feminism a political idea? Or Is feminism a philosophical idea that you can say you agree or disagree with? Can someone just disagree with feminism or any kind of thought that it supports?

4th June, Entry #3 Shout out to all who writes about women, any women. After Jane Rendell`s comments on fictional writing and Virginia Woolf, I took the book out again. ´A Room of One`s Own´. It was a feminist pioneer text almost a hundred years ago, in some ways it is outdated for some ways but also for some other ways there are parts, we are still not yet there. We also can go a bit back to shout to work of Mary Wollstonecraft, who was brave to write about women in 1700s and who was an inspiration on fiction and women. And in her text, ´A Vindication of Rights of Women´, it seems some major problems they have had about women rights were impossible to believe that they were having it, it is a part of history in every way. But some are the problems we still have and continue to carry it to future. Not every society has the equality of opportunities for all genders. When Woolf writes about this safe space, it does not only contain the physical space we live in. For me substantially it refers to a mental space. And in means of social and economic freedom, it seems like we have taken couple of steps forward. There are still many things to discuss about the text does not cover: intersectionalism is one of them. Now we don’t have any excuse not to talk about it and add it to Woolf`s ideas.

22nd June, Entry #4 http://anitsayac.com/popen.html

Additionally, 20th July, last comment Throughout the semester, I took notes as critical journals but couldn`t find time or completely forgot about them, to make them deeper maybe with visuals etc. so I´m uploading this version, just rough thoughts.

„Wir werden Frauenmorde stoppen!“

WE WILL STOP FEMICIDE PLATFORM

We are learning, explaining and extending the struggle. We know both the answer and solution to the question of why femicide rates have increased: The society is progressing; women are adapting to this change and asking for their modern rights. Women, from all regions and social segments of Turkey, want to work, have access to education, get a divorce or break up with their partners if they are not happy, not to be forced to do things they do not want to, and make their own decisions about their lives. This is an indispensible and irreversible historical process. Women will certainly gain their rights through struggle. However, they are not supposed to pay such a price. Patriarchy is the reason behind the loss of so many lives.

‘’ We dont want to die! ‘’

Rather than acknowledging this social reality and understanding women, men are responding women’s quest for rights with violence and putting obstacles in their way. The lack of efficient policies that secure equal existence and rights of women is also encouraging men who are prone to violence. Women will live if their quest for rights, which actually is a very favorable development that would ameliorate the society, is supported, they are empowered, and male violence is fought off with a resolute political will. Whole Turkey will improve. Turkey wants femicide to stop. We can save women’s lives if we together put this opportunity, which is also a milestone for our platform, to good use and unite our strength, hearts and minds. Let’s stop femicide together by putting up a strong fight; And create a country in which women are not murdered and everybody lives happy lives.

Our platform will keep the struggle going until we see these beautiful days.

39 Women were Killed by Men in November, Sexual Violence and Child Abuse Continues 2019 November Report* 39 Femicides in November While 11 of the femicide committed this month were recorded as suspicious deaths, 19 women could not be identified as to why they were killed, 4 of them were killed on economic pretext, 5 of them killed trying to make decisions about their own life, such as wanting a divorce, refusing their wishes for reconciliation and refusing their friendship. Unless it is determined who killed the women and why; unless the suspects, defendants and murderers receive dissuasive penalties and preventive measures are implemented, violence continues to change in size.

36 Women were Killed by Men in October, Sexual Violence and Child Abuse Continues October 2019 Report*

„Wir werden Frauenmorde stoppen!“

36 Femicide in October While 8 of the femicide were recorded as suspicious deaths this month, 17 women could not be determined why, 5 of them were killed by economic pretext, 6 of them wanted to get a divorce, refused to make up and did not answer the phone. Unless it is determined who killed the women and why; Unless the suspects, defendant and murderers receive dissuasive penalties and preventive measures are implemented, violence continues to change in size.

53 Women were Killed in September, Sexual Violence and Child Abuse continue. 2019 September Report * 53 Femicides in September While 11 of the femicides committed this month were recorded as suspicious deaths, 31 of them could not be determined wh why.2 of them under economic pretext; 9 because of wanting to take decisions about their own lives such as: wanting to divorce, the unwilling to continue to the relationship, or refusal. Violence will go on by changing its size and shape, as long as it has not been determined by whom and why the women have been killed and unless fair trial has been conducted and suspicious, accused and murderers have been discouraged.

Many of us are talking about gender-neutral job descriptions these days. But how about gender-neutral job TITLES?

Gender-Neutral Suggestions for the Job Titles That Still Use the Word “Man” Hanging “man”-titles is not going to happen overnight. Until the early 60s, it was common for newspapers to publish separate job listings for men and women. Thankfully we’ve come a long way since then, with gender-neutral words replacing masculine and feminine job titles to cut out gender discrimination and appeal to both sexes. But why does the language we use to describe a job role matter?

Instead of this…/Consider this… Anchorman / Anchor Assemblyman / Assemblyperson Businessman / Businessperson Cameraman / Camera Operator Chairman / Chair, Chairperson Clergyman / Minister, Pastor Congressman / Member of Congress Construction Man / Construction Worker Councilman / Council Member

Gender-biased titles/language start at a very early age. From air hostesses to firemen…it’s time to drop gendered job titles.

Take a look at job boards and news articles and you’ll find that many common job titles still use the word “man” in them.

Baxter says changing terms is the tip of the iceberg in shifting social attitudes for a more fair and equal society but she believes it can have “huge symbolic importance”. “Until people see men doing traditional women’s jobs or women doing men’s jobs on a regular basis, there are few role models for others to follow. In a world of image, branding, symbolism and iconography, a word or image can have enormous power, and use of the positive images in a job advert might well encourage a girl to apply to be an engineer.”

According to Judith Baxter, emeritus professor of applied linguistics at Aston University, sexist language perpetuates gender-biased attitudes by defining what we see as normal for both men and women. “The language we use not only reflects our culture but also constructs it,” she explains. “It sets up expectations about how people are supposed to be. Job descriptions can often slip through the net, less with official titles, and more with implied sexism.”

Instead of this…/Consider this… Councilman / Council Member Craftsman / Artisan Crewman /Crew Member Doorman /Door Keeper Fireman / Firefighter Foreman /Supervisor, Boss Garbage Man / Trash Collector Handyman/ Maintenance Person Longshoreman / Stevedore Mailman / Postal Worker Maintenance Man / Janitor, Caretaker Patrolman / Police Officer Pizza Man / Pizza Person Policeman / Police Officer Salesman / Salesperson Stuntman / Stuntperson Weatherman / Meteorolgist

As society, education and the workplaces continue to break down ingrained gender stereotypes, men and women should be able to advance further in their chosen careers.

But how far can simply changing job titles go in creating gender equality in the workplace? “There is a strong view among applied linguists that while words can’t change attitudes overnight, the continuous, repetitive use of gender-neutral terms does help people to change their view of reality over time,” says Baxter. “If we use non-gendered words most of the time, we begin to see people and professions as non-gendered too.”

“The Death of Marat” - Jacques-Louis David

Both children and adults alike know of the famous ‘Barbie’ dolls, first launched in 1959. But now you can see them in a different light through the wonderful art of Catherine Théry. Exhibited at a gallery called ‘Teodora’ in Paris and titled ‘Not the ones you think’, the art depicts Barbie dolls ‘invading’ classic paintings such as ‘The Last Supper’ by Leonardo da Vinci. The goal of the art is to raise questions about beauty, intelligence and a woman’s place in society. Website: CatherineThery http://catherinethery.net/

See What Happens When Barbies Take Over Classic Paintings

“The Luncheon on the Grass” - Édouard Manet

“The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp” - Rembrandt

“The Creation of Adam” - Michelangelo

“Olympia” - Edouard Manet

“Gabrielle d’Estrées Et Une De Ses Soeurs”

“The Card Players” - Paul Cézanne

Male Photographer Reverses Gender Roles In Sexist Vintage Ads, And Some Men Don’t Like Them The image of a perfect woman in the 1950s is familiar to all of us – a diligent wife, slaving around the house all day, preparing delicious meals for her hardworking husband, taking care of the children, and all that with a smile, of course. This image was reflected a lot in the ads of that era too. Inspired by them, photographer and video editor from Beirut, Lebanon, Eli Rezkallah created a series called “In A Parallel Universe” where he switched up the gender roles portrayed in those ads to reveal the absurdity of such stereotypes with humor. “Last Thanksgiving, I overheard my uncles talk about how women are better off cooking, taking care of the kitchen, and fulfilling “their womanly duties,” Rezkallah writes on his website. “Although I know that not all men are like my uncles and think that way, I was surprised to learn that some still do, so I went on to imagine a parallel universe, where roles are inverted and men are given a taste of their own sexist poison.”

“Natural Beauty” Photo Series Challenges Restricting Female Body Hair Standards London-based photographer, filmmaker, and artist Ben Hopper has caused quite a stir with his project, titled Natural Beauty. Challenging female beauty standards, the photo series aims to find out why women with body hair are labeled as ‘unsexy.’ Although armpit hair is a natural state it has become a statement. Why is that? For almost a century we have been encouraged by the beauty industry to remove female armpit hair. The aim of ‘Natural Beauty’ is to create a contrast between common fashionable female beauty and the raw unconventional look of female armpit hair. By doing so, new thoughts are intrigued in contribution to the world’s vision of femininity, self-love and acceptance. The project sparked a global discussion after going viral several times since its release in 2014. It reached tens of millions and encouraged a cultural trend of women letting their armpit hair grow. “I felt like I was back in control of my body without having realized I’d lost control.” – Amanda Palmer “Being so close to nature let me dive deeper into and re-examine the relationship with myself and the world, acting as a mirror. In nature, there is wild; it is as beautiful as it is untamed. How could it be anything other than that? I felt so relieved and free when I let it grow out. It felt like being able to breathe. It was incredibly comfortable too. I felt a confidence and boldness returning, like I was replenishing some kind of primal power. Isn’t it ridiculous and ironic that what grows naturally on its own is seen as unnatural? How did we get here?” – Kyotocat “…Your body is beautiful, you don’t need to burn it with lasers” – Maya Felix ‘Natural Beauty’ is an ongoing project. (CC) 2007-2020 Ben Hopper. https://therealbenhopper.com/ https://twitter.com/BenHopper https://www.instagram.com/benhopper/ https://www.facebook.com/therealBenHopper/

“I am mixed race and have quite fair sensitive skin and thick dark hair. This made shaving a very difficult and often painful process. Stubble would always grow back within 24 hours, and trying to shave the stubble would end in bleeding and rashes. My underarms were never ‘pretty’ or ‘feminine’. I hated it and was made miserable by it. I remember wearing t-shirts with sleeves when swimming and jumpers on hot days just to cover up my prickly, irritated pits. I certainly couldn’t afford regular waxing at the age when societal pressure kicked in. I desperately wanted to have skin and hair like my friends and be accepted – not only by them, but also by myself. When I was about 17 and in my first serious relationship with a boy who loved my body a lot more than I did, I decided to try something radical. I decided to stop putting myself through pain, to stop being angry with my body for not being the way I wanted it; I stopped shaving. I’d like to say I never looked back but I definitely have. I’ve shaved a few times since, normally because I’ve still been unable to shake the ridiculous feeling that I won’t be able to look feminine in a ball gown with armpit hair. I’ve been self-conscious when people glance or whisper or make a comment to me. I’m ashamed to say I’ve apologised to a few people about it, feeling embarrassed and nervous and wanting to make a point of excusing it before anyone else can comment. I have still sometimes covered them up in summer, and definitely made an effort to hide it during my year of working behind a bar. I didn’t think tipsy, overly forward folks (usually men) would withhold comments on them when I reached up to get a wine glass. However, during this year, I was contacted by Ben Hopper, and eventually and slightly cautiously agreed to let him photograph me for his Natural Beauty series. The experience completely changed my feelings towards my armpits and my overall confidence increased massively. The cat was out of the bag to all of my friends and a rather wider audience than I ever imagined (over half a million!!). After reading the comments on the Facebook post I felt proud to be an example of how beautiful women’s bodies are, no matter what they choose to do with them. I felt indignant about the nastier comments, and developed an ‘if you don’t like it, I don’t give a shit because it’s not for you, and your opinion on my or any woman’s body is irrelevant’ attitude. I’ve now realised that underarm hair acts as a really great asshole deterrent - just another reason to love and appreciate it. I do love it now. I may still shave from time to time, just as I may wear lipstick, or dye my hair – but like the latter two, it would be for the sake of personal choice and expression, rather than to conform to a standard I have no interest in upholding or contributing to in any way. I think everyone should try going without any non-essential grooming at some point in their life. It will shave (pun intended) lots of time off your routine, and it’s really interesting to see what your body naturally does. You may find it freeing and empowering. You may even find that you like the way it looks as I did, and if you don’t you can always just go back to shaving, no harm done.” – Maya Felix, December 2016 (photographed June 2014).

“I stopped shaving completely when I was a teenager because of two instances. The first? I got tired of all the time wasted on maintenance and the discomfort that came with it. The second was when I went on a few multiple week-long backpacking trips; it would have been extremely inconvenient to spend hours ripping my hair out, so I let things grow. Being so close to nature let me dive deeper into and re-examine the relationship with myself and the world, acting as a mirror. In nature, there is wild; it is as beautiful as it is untamed. How could it be anything other than that? I felt so relieved and free when I let it grow out. It felt like being able to breathe. It was incredibly comfortable too. I felt a confidence and boldness returning, like I was replenishing some kind of primal power. People respond to it differently all the time. There are very encouraging/positive reactions— women who have messaged me to thank me for changing their mind and pushing them to challenge their motives/experiment with growing their body hair. Then there are people that start to fetishize it, which can be strange. People revere my decision as a feminist and bold political statement, which is ironic, considering how almost everybody has some kind of body hair. It is also funny because I am lazy and keeping it is the path of least resistance. There are people who are exceptionally rude and who speak from fear. People who say it’s dirty and that I must be a man. The more important questions to ponder are rather why and how do we live in a culture/society that has deemed it acceptable for certain people to have body hair, and unacceptable for others? Isn’t it absurd that it is socially acceptable for humans to have lots of hair on their head, but not on other parts of their same body? Isn’t it ridiculous and ironic that what grows naturally on its own is seen as unnatural? I will say that a very pleasant side effect of having armpit hair is its ability to ward off rude people whom I wouldn’t care to interact or associate with anyway. Because the people that care about that sort of thing and make it a point to say how disgusted they are, are precisely the kind of people that I don’t want in my life. At the end of the day, it all comes down to personal preference. If somebody wants to dye their hair, let them. If somebody wants to get a face tattoo, who cares? Whether a person decides to shave or not is completely up to them. It has nothing to do with you and your feelings of discomfort or your sexual desires. Everybody should have the ability to make personal choices about their bodies and not be criticized for them.” – Kyotocat, March 2018 (June 2017).

Only 27.9 percent of the models who walked the spring 2017 runways were nonwhite, according to a report from The Fashion Spot. In an assessment of the fall 2017 ad campaigns, The Fashion Spot found that 30.4 percent of the models were nonwhite, and of the seven models who booked the most campaigns, just one was of a minority background.

Plus-size models appeared in 2.2 percent of the castings for fall 2017 campaigns, and they made up less than 1 percent of the total in the fall 2017 runway shows, according to The Fashion Spot.

A model working in New York earned, on average, $48,130 in 2016, while one working elsewhere in the United States earned $36,560, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Models are often offered payment in the form of clothes.

pay

In 2017, a measure in France that requires models to provide a medical certificate confirming that they are healthy and not excessively underweight went into effect. In a study conducted by the Model Alliance in conjunction with researchers from Harvard University and Northeastern University that was published in the International Journal of Eating Disorders, 81 percent of the models surveyed reported a body mass index of less than 18.5, which is considered underweight by the World Health Organization.

health

https://nyti.ms/2x7ut8t

watch the video of women in different stages of their careers sound off on their experiences:

“The only thing you can do is complain to the agency, but because of the fierce competition, if you become a ‘problem’ person, you’re more likely to not be hired and sent out on new jobs, It’s like fighting with one or both hands tied behind your back.”

RACIAL DIVERSITY

Because models are considered independent contractors, they lack many of the protections reserved for full-time employees. The industry’s demographic — young, often female, sometimes foreign and non-English-speaking — makes models particularly vulnerable to exploitation. In 2012, a Model Alliance study found that 29.7 percent of female models had experienced inappropriate touching at work, and 28 percent had been pressured to have sex at work.

Since 2007, The Council of Fashion Designers of America has asked casting directors and designers not to hire models under the age of 16 for runway shows. It’s hard to know how many are complying with this recommendation, but Steven Kolb, the president and chief executive of the Council of Fashion Designers of America, said: “It really did change. Every season there would be one or two designers that fell through the cracks. Often it wasn’t intentional.”

BOdy diversity

sexual harasment

UNDERAGE MODELS

modelling industy issues

I had a client that I was their clothing model for all of their fittings for global production. I was at their headquarters four days a week at least, for multiple hours a day. And they didn’t want me to go to the bathroom. They complained if I had a snack. They would talk about my body in front of me: “Julia’s very wide and her hips are very big. Everyone keep that in mind.” Because I’m a model people feel at liberty to comment on my body.

When I decided to wear my hair natural, at first my agency was totally against it. They told me that just-rolled-out-of-bed look isn’t going to work. And it wasn’t just-rolled-out-of-bed. It takes a lot of work. They told me I was going to lose the clients that I had and new clients wouldn’t want to work with me. But the crazy thing is that less than a month after the decision to wear my hair natural, I booked the biggest campaign of my life.

I never made good money as a model. I went into debt with every single one of my agencies at one point or another. An agency has for each girl an account, and if they need to have the girl come from Arizona to New York in order to build her portfolio, the agency will front the expenses for her plane ticket, for paying the photographers, for the physical portfolio itself, for the comp cards that need to be developed, for the retouching, for new clothes to go on castings with, for the accomodation.

My mother was a model, and she never forced anything upon me, but she was taking me to castings in Los Angeles when I was younger. Agents wanted my hips to go down, they were saying I can’t even have a bag of chips, they wanted me on a 700-calorie diet. I remember going into an agency and they said, “You’re beautiful, but you’re a little pudgy here. You got a little hip here.”

My disability is very, very visible. And people sometimes see that before they see me. Those same facial expressions that I get from just taking the subway every morning, at a photo shoot it’s no different. It’s the same facial expressions. I would rather people ask me questions about something that they’re uncomfortable with that I can answer because I’m living in it, rather than assume things and make it 100 times more awkward.

I’ve had photographers say to me: “You’re so beautiful because you have such dark skin but you have such Caucasian features.” What is that supposed to mean? I’m only attractive because I have Eurocentric features? I’ve had people say to me: “You’re lucky because you kind of fit in between this white and black skin color.” So for a hair campaign or something, for example, they’ll check their diversity quota by booking you. But they won’t have to deal with a black girl’s hair.

The girls at castings that were getting selected were all very, very skinny. And so I put a lot of pressure on myself to be that girl because I wanted to succeed. And I developed anorexia and bulimia. That lasted five or six years, and it wasn’t until a couple of years ago that I realized that I had a problem.

One of my first test shoots in New York, we drove out to the Hamptons and nobody told me that it was going to be topless. I shot topless on the beach in the poses the photographer was asking me to do, and I have never felt so uncomfortable in my life.

I’ve walked for a designer in February and didn’t see the check until next September or even the next February when they’re having another show. So sometimes the payments are just not there or really delayed. Sometimes designers don’t pay at all.

I’ve encountered some really interesting issues as pertains to my race. I had a casting for a client that was waiting to see me for a while. They asked me my background and I said, “Oh, I’ve shot for Macy’s and Nordstrom’s.” And they were like, “No. What’s your race?” I said, “I’m black.” They’re like, “Oh, you’re black? You’re just so pretty.’” And I said, “I didn’t know black didn’t come in pretty.” Needless to say I didn’t book that job.

It’s really hard not to fall into that trap of insecurity when you’re a model. Beforehand I never looked at myself in a huge monitor with 30 people around it every day. I have to remind myself when I’m on a job and I’m feeling a lull in attitude or confidence or whatever, I’m there for a reason. I have to constantly remind myself of these almost corny Pinterest mantras, like “You are worthy.”

I actually started a movement called Black Models Matter, which pushes diversity in the industry. There are casting directors who won’t want black models and literally write, “Don’t send models of color” or “We already have a black girl.” I noticed I would go into rooms and I would be like the most exotic thing in there, I would be the darkest thing in there, which was just crazy to me because we live in such a diverse city and you see all types of everything.

who is protecting children from proffesional sports? forms of violence which threaten child athletes: individual

organisational

Relational

Injury Depression Self-harm Eating disorders Disordered eating

Abuse from spectators Discrimination Cultures which normalise abuse Unhealthy training programmes Hazing Medical mismanagement Systematic doping Age cheating

Sexual harassment Sexual abuse Physical abuse Forced physical exertion Emotional abuse Virtual maltreatment Neglect Bullying Doping

“While police are the authority figures most often mentioned in relation to community violence against children, it is clear that many other people with responsibility to supervise or defend children regularly abuse the trust implicit in their positions. These include sports coaches, religious authorities, youth club workers, and teachers.” – Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro, World Report on Violence against Children, 2006

“My coach physically abused his athletes during regular training on many occasions. The coach pulled, hit, pulled hair, and pushed athletes into the walls. He would also verbally abuse the athletes emotionally, I have waited many years to answer a survey like this, wanting someone to know how dangerous the coach was during the time I trained.”

“He forced kids to do things when they were hurt. His philosophy was the Eastern Bloc philosophy: if it isn’t bleeding, don’t worry about it.” (Former Olympic gymnastics trainee)

(Canadian male athlete)

“At nationals he took a lot of girls who weren’t very good…one was inhibited and very selfconscious because she wasn’t good enough to be there. He got her kneeling on the [performing area], smacked her on the bottom, pulled her hair and yanked her arm back.”

“[My parents] would go to competitions and see the way he treated me. He’d put me down before a competition...and they were like, ‘That’s not right. He’s emotionally doing something wrong.’ And I’d say ‘No, he’s not.’So it became…that made a conflict.”

(Female survivor of sexual abuse in sport)

(Young Australian female athlete)

strange fruit

https://youtu.be/Web007rzSOI Southern trees bear a strange fruit Blood on the leaves and blood at the root Black bodies swinging in the southern breeze Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees Pastoral scene of the gallant south The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth Scent of magnolias, sweet and fresh Then the sudden smell of burning flesh Here is For the For the Here is

fruit for the crows to pluck rain to gather, for the wind to suck sun to rot, for the trees to drop a strange and bitter crop

Billie Holiday Produced by Barney Josephson Release Date 1939

about “Strange Fruit,” written by Jewish schoolteacher Abel Meeropol in 1937, takes a harrowing and unflinching look at American racism. The poem specifically focuses on the horrific lynchings that took place primarily across the American South, in which black individuals were brutally tortured and murdered—and often strung up from trees to be gawked at—by white supremacists. The “strange fruit” of the poem’s title refers to these lynching victims, the gruesome image of “black bodies” hanging from “southern trees” serving as a stark reminder of humanity’s potential for violence as well as the staggering cost of prejudice and hate. The poem became most famous as a song performed by Billie Holiday in 1939 and played a significant role in the Civil Rights Movement. It has been covered by many artists since, including Nina Simone.

Emancipation Kushnir Veniamin 1989 USSR

Hey teachers,

(of architecture)

let´s create a more divers curriculum!

„If design professions are to play a relevant role in future world-making, the disciplines must change. Yet architecture, for instance, is a notoriously conservative discipline that clings to traditional notions of mastery and individual creativity, maintaining hierarchical and patriarchal structures.“ - Day 39 of the 100 Day Studio, 100 Day Studio, Architecture Foundation, 04.06.2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Hqu_qmuPp4

Generations of students have gone through architecture studies encountering during this time perhaps two or three female architects and even fewer architects from diverse socio-political origins as references. Unaware educators have only served over and over again the same slides, the same icons, the same architectural references without contextualizing nor questioning the power structures that have heralded some while sidelining others—negating questions of gender, race, and class in their choices. We believe teaching should be based on inclusive pedagogical strategies and references. We propose an overall assessment of the current state of the curriculum across all architecture schools in Europe— and globally.

This could lead to a productive conversation to help educators in sharpening their own tools, questioning age-old references—probably breaking some idols in the way— while also developing concrete strategies for implementing positive change in architectural education everywhere. Charlotte Malterre-Barthes and Dubravka Sekulić are founding members of the Parity Group—a grassroots association committed to improving gender equality and diversity in architecture. https://futurearchitectureplatform.org/ projects/765b75fd-0e46-4879-aa8d28a42ed04102/ c http://f-architecture.com

SoSe 2020 - Christine Hartl, Ass. 2.1.

Hey teachers,

(of architecture)

let´s create a more divers curriculum! (Vol. 2) „In architecture, whether you’ve just had your eyes opened or cared about this for a long time, it is vital that you channel today’s momentum. The systemic issues to be tackled require more than fleeting messages of support on social media. What’s needed is long-term, lasting change within architecture. Racism, discrimination and under-representation cannot be fixed by short-term outrage. They are attitudes and behaviours we should all stand against every day, not just during times of heightened awareness but by making positive, permanent changes.“ (Sonia Waston OBE, CEO of the Stephen Lawrence Trust, https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/opinion/black-livesmatter-momentum-must-be-channelled-into-long-termchange/10047295.article)

(The Silent demo at Alexnderplatz in Berlin on the 6th of June 2020. As a reaction of the murder of George Floyd, a 46-y/o black American man, who was murdered by several Police Officers on may 25, 2020.

„While the Black Lives Matter protests after Floyd‘s killing on May 25 have been focused on police reform, conversations are extending to just about every aspect of society, including architectural academia. Schools of architecture, like the wider architecture profession, are overwhelmingly White, something the BLM movement is drawing attention to and demanding administrations to address.“ (John Hill - https://www.world-architects.com/en/architecture-news/headlines/black-lives-matter-in-architecture-schools)

„We must deman more. The Architecture Industry must take action to reverse the harmful roles that design, architecture and urban planning have played in the systemic dehumanization and violence against black people.“ (via @designasprotests)

De Nichols is a designer, activist, social entrepreneur, and lecturer addressing racial inequities within the built environment through the production of interactive art experiences, digital media, and social interventions.

Hey Senatsverwaltung,

(of Berlin)

let´s create a more divers Stadtentwicklung! The obligation to implement gender mainstreaming in the Berlin administration is based on binding resolutions which have been passed since 2002 by the Berlin Senate and House of Representatives - and at district level, additionally by the Council of Mayors (RdB). They have been continuously developed over the past years. Gender mainstreaming is to be regarded as a complex and long-standing process of organisational development. The aim is to establish equal opportunities and gender justice for women/girls and men/boys, also through a modernised administration.

Urban planning functional requirements? „Urban planning functional requirements transitions or even threshold areas between different uses are important space-creating elements. Designed accordingly, they offer the chance to become places of encounter and communication. At the same time, they allow for good orientation and support the identification with the place and the responsibility of the users for a place.“ * Creation of functional and spatial references of a building project to the existing urban environment * Creating a balance between living, working, care and recreation * Use of synergies and compensation of deficits in the environment (potentials) * Creation of a flexible utilization concept * Consideration of the spatial allocation of uses (residential and office use, retail, gastronomy), taking into account the compatibility of different types of use, in particular accessibility and reachability: - horizontal (by plot) - vertical (by building) * Clear zoning, allocation and design of the transitions from public to private areas * Depending on the type of neighbourhood, creation of revitalising usage possibilities on the ground floor * Offers for different social groups

Auszug, Gender Mainstreaming in der Stadtentwicklung Berliner Handbuch, S. 40/41. Städtebaulich funktionale Anforderungen: https://www.stadtentwicklung.berlin.de/soziale_stadt/gender_mainstreaming/ download/gender_deutsch.pdf

SoSe 2020 - Christine Hartl, Ass. 2.3.

„The development of this political will should actually tie up with the violation of the sense of justice. And there are great difficulties in moving away from the theoretical advocacy of equality policy, or at least of the principle of equality, to its practical implementation, for example in the field of science. Who will admit that women have been treated unfairly in their field up to now and draw the consequences of active promotion of women from this? And if there are too few women at the higher levels of science, then, according to the guardians of science, this is only because women have children and „society“ does not provide enough childcare facilities (which cannot be the task of the university to compensate for). If, however, the discrimination of women is denied as such, then the regulations for its elimination cannot be recognised as legitimate (cf. Meuser 1989, 119 f.), and the energy is directed towards undermining it instead of actively promoting women.“

(UTE GIEBHARDT, Rosa-Luxemburg-Stiftung Texte 7 Gender Mainstreaming: positive Impulse für den Wissenschaftsbetrieb?)

Rowaa

https://egyptindependent.com/egyptian-actor-hisham-selim-my-daughter-is-transgender/

Trans-discourse

May 18 2020

Despite Hisham’s take on the transgender issue on a public platform and the many ways he led a fruitful conversation, what remains to be extremely alarming is his admission of his bias towards his son’s sought-out gender. While he managed to give his daughter blessings to changer her gender, he thought he would have a much harder time accepting the opposite, given the hardships that our society imposes on women. To him, allowing his son to become his daughter seemed to be an intolerable thought. It surprisingly seems like misogyny in Egypt can be even more deeply rooted than trans-phobia.

female to male and vice versa?

A core factor in the issue is the legal take on it. It was very surprising for me to find out that Egypt, while as a culture is very intolerant to the LGBTQ cause, is actually the only Arab country with legal provisions for transsexual people. However, the issue that Noor Selim and countless others face is the refusal of authorities to approve an official change of gender status on identification, which is not rooted in any legal obligations.

Authorities and LGBTQ

Although such discourse might be open among younger generations (albeit in the shadows), the father’s level of engagement in public television was groundbreaking by societal standards. He was able to address alien topics and terms, and to focus the conversation mainly on Noor’s struggles, insisting that his own hardships with the issue are not relevant to the conversation as he was not the victim.

Parent-Child relationship and assignment of protagonist

What was most shocking to me and most people, was the more positively-skewed response from the general audience on social media, on speciﬁc platforms which by no means cater to anything remotely left-wing.

However, earlier this month I woke up to a surprising post on my facebook feed. It was an article by an Egyptian news agency about famous Egyptian actor Hisham Selim and his transgender son, Noor. The story was ﬁrst exposed in public during a TV interview with Hisham the night before, during which he spoke openly about the struggles his son went through to be able to express his true gender.

Gender politics in the middle east are far from being progressive. The mere act of such issues being publicly addressed is shocking, and of course such stories are usually of prosecution or violence.

E-1027, Le Corbusier & the Legacy of Eileen Gray

One of the Irish architect Eileen Gray’s most renowned pieces of work is her E-1027 villa in the South of France. Le Corbusier, who was a contemporary and an acquaintance of Eileen Gray, was a frequent guest of the house and eventually left his mark on the carefully articulated interior by painting colorful murals on the walls - an act which Gray saw as an act of vandalism. It is said that he was “seemingly affronted that a woman could create such a fine work of modernism”. Le Corbusier continued to have an anecdotal relationship with that house. After attempting and failing to purchase it, he settled for a nearby property where he built his own cabin. It was in those very waters outside the E-1027 that Le Corbusier would take almost daily swims, and where he would ultimately drown. It is said that he took his last breath just outside the house that intrigued him past almost any other. Years later, it would be mainly the murals he defaced the interiors with that save the house when it required restoration, as if the genius of Eileen Gray’s architecture, which he himself recognized, would not suffice.

09.06.2020

Hammam Talks & Psychotherapy

06.07.2020

Part of official description on website: yamakan.place/hammamradio/

“Hammam Talks” is a series of events rooted in the

“Hammam Radio” is a feminist participatory project, launched from Berlin. We firmly believe that now more than ever, women’s voices matter. That they are important, if not crucial in these times of crisis of capitalism and patriarchy.

broadcast online and thus had a much wider outreach.

intersectional feminist scene of Berlin and dedicated to empowering voices from across the Mediterranean. Its sister radio platform emerged during the height of COVID-imposed lockdown in the spring of 2020, and was

I was engaged and in awe of the platform when it emerged, having been locked in Cairo myself. The myriad of female voices that I didn’t know I had been thirsty

“Hammam Radio” is meant to be a place where women in all their diversity meet, talk, participate, think, shout, cry, laugh, become angry, love, and raise their voices. We will be cursing, dancing, singing, playing music and songs that reflect our moods and current state. We will also be reading, telling stories and everything else in between. We all need stories.

for were humbling. The casual and narrative way that

The “Hammam” in “Hammam Radio”, is inspired from Mediterranean, Levantine and Persian cultures, where hammams represented a safe space for women (and also men*, separately) for self-care. They were also a safe space for sharing stories and secrets, an alcove removed from societal scrutiny. And this radio is our attempt to take this mystique everywhere, through the act of striptease, which each participant will choose to perform, however they like.

and herself. She then relayed how she discussed that

womxn of various backgrounds were engaging feminist topics in made those issues feel a lot more relatable and accessible. One particular instance was striking to me, when one of the regular hosts was speaking of an experience that was largely unequally dealt between her male partner experience during a therapy session, and how she was disappointed by her therapist’s ability to support or advise her on such a gendered issue. It became obvious how many womxn, myself included, have taken countless manifestations of systemic patriarchy among ourselves, and dealt with them as internalized issues that require psychotherapeutic intervention. Systemic oppression has mental health consequences on most if not all women, to varying degrees, and it is important to seek mental health support in those cases. However, it is also crucial to recognize the difference between cause and effect, and to have adequate and appropriate channels and platforms where we, as womxn, can safely share our experiences and find guidance and support on gendered issues. Hammam Talks and Radio have been to many such a platform, but seeking that from a mental health professional almost implies that our grievances are something we should be ‘working on’. On the other hand, various sexual assault and harassment scandals that have recently emerged in Egypt have shown how quickly society is in excusing sexual offenders as

“Sexual harassment and rape are not a mental illness.” instagram.com/p/CCOW585pF2Q/

‘mentally unhealthy’, both diminishing the offender’s crime as unintentional and ascribing a certain blame to the victim.

Language & Feminist Discourse

06.07.2020

On having the words to talk about gendered issues/ Language as an ailment and a symptom On the progression of language, and the regression brought about by a lack thereof.

In the light of a recent eruption of sexual harassment and assault scandals in Egypt, countless public and anonymous figures have attempted to speak up against sexual harassment in particular, but also to push forward long forgotten conversations about gender equality, the patriarchy, and systemic oppression in general. Stemming from an Arab country with a largely-confused relationship with the Arabic language, it has been apparent that a lot of terms that would be associated with the feminist cause have either been forgotten or never introduced to the Arabic lexicon. Observing the conversations being had around the issue has been a gateway into understanding how deeply-rooted the patriarchal institution is, but the attempts to introduce and translate certain concepts have been a hopeful outlook onto some form of change.

instagram.com/p/CCOQ3yzntD9/

The screenshot is taken from an instagram video posted by an Egyptian anthropologist and activist named Fadila Khaled. In her post, Fadila attempts to explain several concepts from feminist theory in a simplified manner, and she attempts to do so in Arabic. While obviously well-read and in great command of both English and Arabic, she struggles to find the Arabic translations for some terms. She opens the video by saying (translated): “disclaimer, go easy on me because I’m translating what i know and have studied from English to Arabic, so please go easy on me.” She eventually does so rather impressively. Below are some of the topics she was tackling and to which no straightforward translation lent itself. A reverse translation would be inadequate, but the struggle becomes evident through the length of the Arabic explanations relative to their respective English phrasing.

moral color

‫) بنقلبه‬...( ‫ملا احنا بناخد سلوك غلط هو أمحر‬ ‫ابلراحة إنه يبقى أصفر (بعدين) إنه يبقى أخضر‬ fragility, male ego

???

cultural violence

‫الثقافة العنيفة أو أو العنف اللي بيحصل‬ ‫ من قبل أو من الثقافة‬sorry patriarchy

‫املنظومة الذكورية أو الباطرايركية‬

Arvida Byström in the Adidas Commercial

Arvida Bystörm is a swedish Artist and Model, she was part of a Adidas Superstar Commercial in 2017. In it, her legs, unshaved so they are growing some hair, are shown to the camera for a few seconds, while Byström says in a voiceover: “I think femininity is usually created from our culture. So I think everybody can do feminine things, can be feminine. And I think in today’s society, we’re very scared of that.” All in all it was a pretty short clip and the leg hair was barley noticable, but this 15 Seconds were enough apparently to offend quite some people and led to a barrage of hate comments and even Rape threats. Although Byström got some positive feedback It is just unbearable how she had to endure such a verbal attack on her body just for being present in a commercial. Imagine the reaction if she was not that priviliged female with such an abled, white, cis body as she herself points out on her Instagram.

“I think femininity is usually created from our culture so I think everybody can do feminine things, can be feminine. I feel like in today’s society we are very scared of that.” -Arvida Byström

It is very disturbing for me that there are people that get offended by a little leg hair and even go that far to harass the owner of it. It seems like this body hair disturbes a concept of femininity. They mix up the understanding of gender binary and are a reminder that many of the physical makers of masculinity and femininity are not natural and immutable, but rather culturally constructed and historically defined. In this case the violent reactions and sexual intimidation Arvida Byström is experiencing are evidence that women are still not entitled to make choices about their bodies that they want to make. But when we talk about bodyhair it is just an example for the many ways the female body is object of discussion.

Arvida Byström in the Adidas Commercial

It is definitly arguable when big companies like Adidas or H&M promote their brand in this manner becuase it is a sell out on feminist ideas. It is arguable because these companies do not practice any form of gender equality or even basic human rights in some cases, concerning the more than questionable production in countries like Kambodscha or Bangladesh, basically it is just a marketing strategy capitalizing on the idea of empowering females. On the other hand it is a global Platform spreading progressive Ideas instead of an sexualisation of the female body or creating genderdefined roles. Of Course Arvida for example also uses Instagram as a global Platform to promote a diversified image of fimininity through her Art but the targeted audience of a Adidas or H&M Commercial will much likley be significantly bigger and eventually more diverse than her own.

Fatima Pinto in the H&M Commercial

In 2016 there was a similar Commercial made for H&M, according to them “The latest campaign celebrates diversity as well as inspirational women from various backgrounds, encouraging women around the world to embrace their personal style and take pride in who they truly are and what they stand for.” In the Video several women appear, like the Muay Thai Boxer Fatima Pinto admiring herself in a mirror, musician Jillian Hervey picks her teeth in a restaurant, model Iselin Steiro sits spread-legged on a train and Arvida Bryström also has a part in it. The connecting Element is that they all challenge stereotypes of what it means to be or behave Lady-Like. The visual is accompanied by a Lion Babe cover of Tom Jones’ ‘She’s a Lady.

Pics or It Didn’t Happen

“Pics or It Didn’t Happen” is another Project of Arvida Byström in collabortion with the artist Molly Soda. In this work they collected Images that violated the Community Guidelines of Instagram. They curated a book after putting out an open call asking Instagram users to submit their deleted Photos. Instagram’s Community Guidelines state they will remove anything “violent, nude, partially nude, discriminatory, unlawful, infringing, hateful, pornographic, or sexually suggestive”, while some Photos obviously breach these rules showing completly nude bodys, others are a little bit more subtle like a woman with Cellphone tuck under her Hijab. The Project is an expansion of the Artists ongoing work (part of it beeing also removed from Instagram) to push the boundaries of how we view the femle body. Molly Soda said herself “There is a great fear that surrounds the female body – a nude photograph immediately becomes pornographic even if that is not the intent.”

Pics or It Didn’t Happen

quick easy

7/25

moisture/hydro kick fast boost/power control clean

13/100

most used words

english words

Shaver

most used words

english words

17/104

care damage beauty indulge tender repair smooth moisture

20/176

smooth/soft simple

1/29

moisture/hydro Anti-Aging firm care regenerating smooth/soft

4/55

fragrance protection type of fragrance care longlasting fresh beauty

most used words

english words

Deodorant

most used words

english words

Face Moisturizers

protection fresh fragrance moisture/hydro longlasting control strong

32/102

fresh care moisture/hydro ice/cool/chill sport energy clean effect

66/167

Showering Gel & Shampoo

In this Journal I took a tour to the grocery store closest to me and took some pictures of hygiene products that directly adress either men or women. There are defenitly also products with a little bit more neutral design not targeting a specific gender but i wanted to compare the Keywords of this very specific products. What words are men and women supposed to be interested in concerining the same items.

Michelangelos Depiction of Medusa

Anger is considered a marker of masculinity. At least the type of Anger that gets something done, the type that is accepted to be displayed in public, the anger that is empowering and intimidating, a sign of authority, a strong leadership and power. But this Kind of Anger is not expected to be exercised by Women. Anger in women is still considered a sign of mental or hormonal imbalance. But Anger in itself is a natural emotion, boys and girls get angry equally often and in my opinion they also show this emotion quite similar. According to a study written by Ann M. Kring in 2000 men and women were selfrepoting anger episodes just as frequent as men but they experienced shame and embarrassment more often afterwards. But the expression of Anger was quite diffrent according to Kring, whilst men were reporting to physically and verbally assault people and objects, women were more likley to cry.

Audre Lorde wrote an essay about this Topic “The Uses of Anger”, in it she defines it not as a social retribution but in terms of connection and survival. For her Anger is a catalyst for useful discomfort and clearer dialogue. I have suckled the wolf’s lip of anger,” she writes, “and I have used it for illumination, laughter, protection, fire in places where there was no light, no food, no sisters, no quarter.” So it is not just about destruction for her, it is as well a positive Element, Anger is activating it generates Heat. Further Lorde writes “Every woman has a well-stocked arsenal of anger potentially useful against those oppressions, which brought that anger into being.” So I guess it is fairly obviuos that not only kids get angry equally often and that Anger is probably necessary to live a balanced life. But why is it that women can not embrace their anger as much as men do or why do I think that. It is true that we live in a Patriarchy and that a lot of the angry females portrayed in mythological characters or old stories and Fairytales are mad and evil like the Medusa, the Harpy or the Witch. But I am not that sure if these historic references really influence me that directly so I wanted to see if these portrayals carried over to our current popculture which I suspect to influence me quite a bit more and looked at more recent images drawn of angry women or gender biased anger by the filmindustry which I noticed in the last couple of weeks.

[..]The people most inclined to say “You sound angry” are the same people who uniformly don’t care to ask “Why?” They’re interested in silence, not dialogue. [..]A society that does not respect women’s anger is one that does not respect women—not as human beings, thinkers, knowers, active participants, or citizens.” -Soraya Chemaly

Dark (2017-2020) bo Odar, Baran

Drive (2011) Winding Refn, Nicolas

Carnage (2011) Polanski, Roman

I do not want to focus on the Series Dark or the Plot or anything just this one Scene that I noticed showing the reaction to a very vicious crime. The Situation is the following, there is a young family consisting of a mother (the woman on the right) and the Father (the man on the left in the left picture) and their child, the child gets stolen and both father and mother notice it at the same time. The futher jumps up ferociously runs to the suspected thief and chokes him to release his anger. The mother starts crying and sits down onto their bed and waits for her husband to return.

The Movie Drive is just an example of a portrayal of the enabaling force: male anger. I would not say that this movie presents the rage of the Protagonist as a purley good thing, he still is irrational and violent, but he also is very powerful. Through his rage he is able to eliminate a whole gang inside their lair and he is basically unbeatable. The storyline more or less focuses the anger driven revenge actions of Ryan Gosling.

I just rewatched this Movie after several years and it was still very enjoyable but i could not help but notice how different the protagonists were characterized. The quick summary of the movie, two couples meet up to discuss the dispute between their sons and end up in a far worse fight themselves. Everybody loses their temper during the course of this movie and nobody is portrayed as a very likable person, but when the hosting women called penelope who initiated this whole meeting gets angry and starts shouting with a overriding voice she completley loses control of her body starts hitting her husband, she is the embodyment of a irrational mad imbalanced women and the result of her Anger is that she is not taken seriously anymore.

When I was 18 I did a volunteer Year in a Hospital. I was in surgery and had to help the Patients to get to the operation table and also leave it safely afterwards. I had to prepare the patients for the operation, like connecting them to the ECG, desinfecting their legs (It was a phlebology station so opertations were focused mainly on the legs) unwrapping the Instruments and from time to time reaching in some backup Mediaction or replacing contaminated Instruments during Operation. There were more or less 27 People working in this surgery, not including the station containing the patient beds and the Daycare facility. So it were around fifteen nurses and OP-Assistants, five assistant doctors two regular doctors and three Chief doctors and two op cleaners. Occasionally an anesthesia doctor came over from a ortthopedic surgery to perform a general anesthesia. What was very noticable was the inequal gender distribution. I would say 80% of the staff were female but two out of three chief doctors were Men and four of the five Assistant doctors were female. Just one nurse was male but he was the head nurse. The only exception of this whole cliché was the cleaning staff which consited of two men in their 20s. So in a completely by women dominated working enviorment nearly all the leading positions were occupied by men. This circumstance coupled with a very distinct hirarchy and command structure in the field of medicine led to antiquated situations of men commanding women. While all the nurses may be system relevant the individual still could be replaced by someone else, whilst the chief doctors carried such a big reputation in front of them, being germanywide (sometimes worldwide) well known specialists in their field of work. I do nott know if the inbalance is always this obvious but i do know that there also was a orthopeadical surgery in this hospital and they had no female doctors and just a few female nurses, because of the heavy lifting. But they had green outfits in opposed to our pink ones.

Inside the Operation Room Women in Surgery

Table 1 Femininity index - ratio between the number of women and men in permanentmedical positions in the specialties throughout the study period.

The female-to male ratio among trainee medical specialists was higher than 1 throughout the study period. After completion of specialist training, the proportion of women with temporary contracts more than doubled that of men. Less than 50% of women achieved permanent positions compared with 70% of men. For permanent non-hierarchical and hierarchical positions, the female-to-male ratio gradually decreased from 0.5 to below 0.2. Although more than 50% of trainee specialists were women, the number of female consultants remained 25% lower than that of men. In 2008, the final year of the study, the percentage of women who had achieved the grade of senior consultant was one-third that of men (29.5% of men vs 10.9% of women; p < 0.0001).

Here are the Results of a Study called “Gender inequalities in the medical profession: are there still barriers to women physicians in the 21st century?” (by Pilar Arrizabalagay, Rosa Abellana, OdetteViñas, AnnaMerino, CarlosAscaso) it was carried out in a Hospital in Barcelona. It is based on the impression that evon though half of medicine students are female just a fracture is in a leading position in a practice. They analyzed data on temporary and permanent positions, hierarchy, promotions, specialty, age, and sex among the participants and compared the Ratio of women in these positions from 1996 to 2008.

Table 2 Femininity index according to the hierarchal position throughout theyears of the study.

The ratios between the numbers of women versus men among permanent medical positions were around 0.5 (0.45-0.60) for non-hierarchal positions and markedly decreased below 0.2 for hierarchal positions throughout the study. According to data from 2006, this ratio slightly rose to 0.3 for sectionor unit heads, the lowest hierarchal position, but no trend toan increase was observed in any hierarchal position (p > 0.05)

Child psychiatry and anaesthesia were feminised specialties.Dermatology and laboratory (clinical chemistry, microbiology,pathological anatomy, genetics and immunology) specialtiesappeared to show gender parity. In nine specialties, the mean ratioof the femininity index was less than 0.59 to 0.34, and finally, 7specialties were strongly masculinised, with 24% (neurology) to 3%(trauma and orthopaedic surgery) of these specialties being com-prised of women (Table 2).

critical journal #1_ 13/05/2020_Antonia Leicht

(Facebook post of a friend)

when two men like Joko and Klaus talk for 16 minutes about sexism, psychological and physical violence against women all like this: +++ BREAKING NEWS ITS TRUE +++

If women have been reporting sexism, psychological and physical violence against women for centuries everyone is like:

On Wednesday, the 13th of march 2020 the German TV-entertainment / comedy duo Joko and Klaas won 15 minutes of airtime at Pro 7. But instead of doing something funny, they chose to do dedicate this prime time slot to woman: »Männerwelten«, man’s world is a impressive mini-broadcast about sexual harassment and abuse to woman. The author Sophie Passmann moderates and guides the viewer through an »exhibition« in a darkened hall, showing »dickpics« that were sent to the TV moderator Palina Rojinski and meeting woman who talk about sexual harassment they have experienced on social media as well as in real life. Almost half of all women in Germany have been victims of sexual violence in their lives, the video concludes. Every seventh woman in Germany has already experienced criminally relevant forms of sexual violence. That is sad, bitter and for some (especially men) still hard to believe. Without any question it was a good and important decision that Joko and Klaas have used the gained airtime in this way. It raises awareness to a very important issue woman have to deal with in their everyday lifes. In social networks the video is shared, liked and commented on.

Man’s World

But when you take a critical look at the video and the circumstances of how it was made and by whom as well as the reactions of the people to it, it gets interesting and questionable pretty fast. The first thing I noticed is that Joko and Klaas are not to be seen in the whole video. They leave the stage entirely to the women. At the same time they get celebrated for their great clip even if they do not occur one single time. Its just famous white woman – moderators, authors, influencers, actresses – that talk about their experiences. The makers of the video exclude the perspectives

After just 3 days, it has been watched over 3 million times on youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc0P2k7zIb4)

For me as an architecture student there is another interesting aspect of the clip. The setting, the space where the video plays should represent a so called »exhibition«. The viewer gets a tour through several dark rooms in an industrial, abandoned building, all with slightly different setup and lightning. There is a big hall with woman standing in the dark reporting situations where they experienced sexual harassment in their daily life (screenshot on the left). In another room, there are outfits on display that woman wore at the time they were sexually abused. After the seminar session, where we talked about how our survival tools would be translated into architectural spaces, surfaces, materials, I looked at the video more conscious. I instantly asked myself why the makers chose to »design« the space like this. Obviously you they wanted to trigger a uncomfortable and fearful feeling. But I think they might have overdid it. The spatial design in the video is not supporting the mediation of this important theme. Its somehow the other way around - its predictable and imposed. It feels like they put the experiences of the speaking woman to the dark dirty corner, that the reported situations happened in the night when nobody can see it. But sexual harassment happens at daytime, in public, at work and in social networks. Wouldn’t it be more professional and serious if they had shown us a video that plays in a space free from prejudices and »horror« like associations?

Another bitter aspect is, that Joko and Klaas did sexual abuse a woman themselves back in 2012. A videos of their back then show »Neoparadise« shows a challenge where Joko has to grad a unknown woman at her breasts and bottom. They both laugh afterwards and Klaas even jokes »that she stood there and felt really humiliated and that she’s probably going home to start crying in the shower«. A lot of voices on the internet miss a self-critical impact of the two entertainers: »...in my opinion, the biggest omission is that every reflection of Joko and Klaas’ breast and butt grabbing action of 2012 is missing. At the same time, I believe it would be much more effective, and also more credible, if the wrongdoing of these two men had been included« says a twitter user. I can totally agree!

of Women of color, trans- or inter-sexual women. Could the topic only be brought closer to the audience through these women?

Where is this call for abusive men, or men in general, to reflect?

Of course, after such a video there is no common opinion and a lot of discussions. But maybe thats the most important aspect: that it triggers a discussion that finally includes what is missing.

Two of the exhibition halls (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uc0P2k7zIb4)

Joko grabs the breasts and bttom of a woman unasked back in 2012 to win a bet (https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=830&v=Xl_LXiPbl1Q&feature=emb_logo)

critical journal #2_ 15/06/2020_Antonia Leicht

There are currently seven open professorships at the faculty of architecture at the TU Berlin, that need to be allocated in the near future (source: post of the ifafachschaft-account on the 15th of june 2020). These new positions are a big opportunity to finally come closer to a balanced quote of female and male professors. At the moment there is a big gap when we look into the teaching positions: only three female professors and 17 male ones. A change of these sad numbers gets even more urgent when we look back. Already 1994 the front page of the faculty magazine says: »who doesn’t want a official regulated quote, has

#Womeninarchitecture (Instragram account of the student representatives of the architecture faculty of TU Berlin)

Faculties of Architecture

Man’s World Vol. 2 :

»As long as equality is a never-ending construction site, I will be a feminist.« (Public intervention by Katharina Cibulka)

»As long as I say career and you hear family management, I will be a feminist.« (Public intervention by Katharina Cibulka)

to vote for female professors«. Over 20 years later not much has changed. But not only the TU Berlin has to face this problem. The following statistics show that all nationwide woman are underrepresented when it comes to teaching positions at architecture faculties. In average there are around 30% of woman in education (assistants, scientific research, professors). Simultaneously the number of architecture students is rather balanced and even

The work of Austrian artist Katharina Cibulka deals with this problematic topic. She stitches feminist quotes with a pink yarn on the cover of construction sites. »As long as I say career and you hear family management, I will be a feminist« or »As long as equality is a never-ending construction site, I will be a feminist« are two of them. The apparently contrary man-dominated construction site and the mainly feminine associated handicraft of stitching display a new correlation that screams for equality. Perhaps this straight, big, strong statement and of course at the same time demand which can’t be misunderstood is the right way to deal with our situation. Maybe we have to remind us and everyone more often and louder what we want and what we are entitled to.

Of course there is the classic gap in a career of a woman because of children and family reasons but we are living in 2020 and its totally normal that fathers and men assume an equal part of the responsibilities and tasks. Nevertheless I have the impression that most of the female professors I met while studying at different universities chose their profession over everything else and often embody a rather tough »power woman« image. Maybe it is because there is a feeling to prevail and to gain acceptance in the man dominated field of architecture, woman try to be extra strong and strict to be respected. This might happen subconsciously and develops over time with the experiences we make and situations where we feel not taken for granted. I often think about an internship I did in a studio runned by a rather young woman. She always wanted to be super prepared and ready for every question or doubt that could come up at meetings with clients or executing companies because she said otherwise they would directly stigmatize her as the unexperienced and unskilled young woman.

But why are these numbers like that? Why isn’t there any significant change since 1994? Is it a structural problem, a social one? Is it because woman are underrepresented in every aspect of architecture production, communication and education which results into a big lack of female role models?

Speakers and exhibitors at the gallery of architecture in Munich (Gallery of architecture, Munich)

Scientific employees, assistants and professors at the architecture facultiy of TU Munich (Technical University of Munich)

Scientific employees at the architecture faculties (Statistisches Bundesamt)

Architecture students (Statistisches Bundesamt)

critical journal #4_ 13/07/2020_Antonia Leicht

Diana, goddess of the Moon, as Personification of the Night, by Anton Raphael Mengs

»I bleed each month to help make humankind a possibility. my womb is home to the divine. a source of life for our species. whether i choose to create or not. but very few times it is seen that way. in older civilizations this blood was considered holy. in some it still is. but a majority of people. societies. and communities shun this natural process. some are more comfortable with the pornification of women. the sexualization of women. the violence and degradation of women than this. they cannot be bothered to express their disgust about all that. but will be angered and bothered by this. we menstruate and they see it as dirty. attention seeking. sick. a burden. as if this process is less natural than breathing. as if it is not a bridge between this universe and the last. as if this process is not love. labour. life. selfless and strikingly beautiful.« Writes the indian-canadian author Rupi Kaur under an Instagram-Post, that shows herself menstruating. In our society, menstruation is still not much talked about and associeated with shame, disgust, a burden. But this is and was not always the case and also not everywhere. Sociology can help use to see how societies view menstruation. Many traditional religions consider menstruation ritually unclean, although anthropologists point out that the concepts sacred and unclean may be connected. By contrast, in many hunter-gatherer societies, menstrual observances are viewed in a positive light.

Menstruation

In Judaism, a woman during menstruation is called “niddah” and may be banned from certain actions. For example, the Jewish Torah prohibits sexual intercourse with a menstruating woman. The ritual exclusion of “niddah” applies to a woman while menstruating and for about a week thereafter, until she immerses herself in a mikvah (ritual bath). Orthodox Judaism forbids women and men from even touching or passing things to each other during this period. Touching a menstruating female, touching an object she had sat on or lain on also makes a person ritually unclean. Most Christian denominations do not follow any specific rules related to menstruation. Some denominations follow the rules laid out in the Holiness Code section of Leviticus, somewhat similar to the Jewish ritual of Niddah. Some church fathers defended the exclusion of women from ministry based on a notion of uncleanness. Many authorities of the Eastern Orthodox Church advise women not to receive communion during their menstrual period, not because menstruation is considered to be sinful, but for more intense preparation to approach Christ. However, today, women are advised to disregard this practice. During menstrual periods, women are excused from performing prayers. They should not fast and left over fasts of Ramadan are to be complet-

The word “menstruation” is related to “moon”. In some societies, menstrual rituals are experienced by women as protective and empowering, offering women a space set apart from the male gaze and from unwanted sexual or domestic pressures. An instructive example is provided by the communal bashali (large menstrual house) of women in the Kalasha Valley (Pakistan) as their ‘most holy place’, respected by men, and serving as women’s all-female organizing centre for establishing and maintaining gender solidarity. The idea that menstrual blood marks the body as periodically sacred was maybe initially established by female coalitions in their own interests. In some cultures, a menstruating woman was considered powerful, with increased psychic abilities, and strong enough to heal the sick. According to the Cherokee, menstrual blood was a source of feminine strength and had the power to destroy enemies. In Ancient Rome, Pliny the Elder wrote that a menstruating woman who uncovers her body can scare away hailstorms, whirlwinds and lightning. In some African cultures, menstrual blood is used in the magic charms in order to both purify and destroy.

In Buddhism, menstruation is viewed as a natural physical phenomenon that women have to go through, nothing more or less. However, in certain branches of Buddhism, menstruating women are banned from attending temples. In Nichiren Buddhism, menstruation is not considered a spiritual obstacle to religious practice, although

ed during other days. Pilgrimages are allowed; however, circumambulation of the Kaaba is prohibited and is to be performed during other times. They are advised to not enter the praying place of mosque without any important purpose, but are encouraged to be present at muslims gatherings and festivals (Eids). After the period, a bath (Ghusl) is required before prayer may continue. The traditional Islamic interpretation of the Qur’an forbids intercourse, but not physical intimacy, during a woman’s menstrual period.

Eve (Temptation), by Pantaleon Szyndler

Kisshōten, a Japanese fertility deity, equivalent of the Hindu goddess Lakshmi

a menstruating woman may choose not to bow, for comfort. In Hinduism, traditionally, women are advised not to enter temple, work in kitchen, have sex, touch other persons... Menstruation is seen as a period of purification, and women are often separated from place of worship or any object pertaining to it. This forms the basis of most of the cultural practices around menstruation in Hinduism. In Shaktism the Earth’s menstruation is celebrated during the Ambubachi Mela, an annual fertility festival held in June, in Assam, India. The annual menstruation course of the goddess Kamakhya is worshipped in the Kamakhya Temple. In Sikhism, woman is given equal status to man and is regarded as pure as man is. The Sikh gurus teach that one cannot be pure by washing his body but purity of mind is the real pureness. Guru Nānak, the founder of Sikhism, condemned the practice of treating women as impure while menstruating. In Japan, the religion of Shinto did and still does play a part in their society. The Kami, the spirits they worshiped, would not grant wishes to those who had traces of blood, dirt, or death on them. As a result, women who were menstruating were not allowed to visit any of the Kami shrines for the duration of their menstrual period. Even today, women are not allowed to enter Shinto temples during menstruation, and in some instances, women are completely banned from climbing the tops of sacred mountains due to their ‘impurity’. The tradition is kept somewhat alive in the belief that the shedding of the endometrial lining is a kind of death. (Source : Womanfromhistory)

critical journal #3_ 29/06/2020_Antonia Leicht

»One of my favorite things about being a woman is the exquisite joy of female friendships. These friendships are comforting and nurturing, complex and profound, sometimes they cause heartache, sometimes they end, sometimes life brings them back around to you when you least expect it. I could not survive without them.« says writer Caitríona McBride - and I can totally relate.

Forming a female collective makes us stonger individually but also empowers woman beyond that (Photo by Carlota Guerrero)

In the past decades woman have been subconsciously taught to be competitive with one another. Media showed us woman fighting against each other because there was a scarcity of jobs at the top, not enough good men for everyone or just because one seemed prettier than the other. While men formed exclusive clubs and helped each other, woman were shown talking behind each others backs, bitching and stealing opportunities. But reality now-days shows that it seems to work exactly the other way around.

The power of female friendships

Menstruation :

Afro feminist collective EFAE from spain (i-D Spain)

Sharing ideas, inspiring and support each other (Photo by Carlota Guerrero)

The more I am aware of this subject the more I notice the existence of female friendships which are going further by forming collectives, getting political or group up to fight for a common future.

»We could share, reflect, fight, and, above all, empower ourselves from a place of collective healing and vindication.« (EFAE collective, Spain)

Whenever I see or experience a group of woman (of any age or cultural background) I instinctively feel a energy of power, strength and fearlessness. Being with other woman, especially ones that I know, that share similar feelings and opinions on topics and where I feel understood, is really empowering and notably different than other friendships. Especially when it comes to terms as helping and supporting each other, I could not imagine surviving without the woman in my life.

On my research for interesting female collectives I found f-architecture, a feminist architecture collaborative from Brooklyn, New York. »We work both through architecture and its refusal. Together and separately we pursue an activist spatial practice, one that is grounded in research and, perhaps more importantly, in the production of things that situate that research in public forms and in the cultural and political contexts from which it emerges, where it is most salient, where it acts and is made actionable.« Their projects traverse theoretical and activist registers to locate new forms of architectural work through critical relationships with collaborators across continents and an expanding definition of Designer. Feminist-Architecture as a way to translate complaints in a visuable, experienceable form, working aware of certain cultural and political aspects, gather to empower each other. Not limiting us in our profession by doing what has always been done, but going further and use the tools we have to communicate our demands, our point of view, our feminist friendship.

»We can and do form complaint collectives. We can and do become harder to manage. But we do not always assemble at the same time or in the same place. You might feel like a lonely little ghost: gone; gone away; a stray. Your complaint might seem to have evaporated like steam, puff; puff. That complaint can still be picked up and amplified by others. You might not be able to hear it now; it might not have happened yet. But each complaint gathers more, a gathering as a gathering of momentum; the sounds of refusal; little ghosts, little birds, scratching away at something. We gather, becoming that momentum.« Writes Sara Ahmend on her blog feministkilljoys.com. A woman alone has power, but if we gather, collectively we have impact. The complains, discussions and fights in our daily lifes seem small and not making any change. Ahmend describes this feeling as a lonely one, like a ghost, gone away faster than we could imagine. But if we gather in complaint collectives, if we see our struggles not as individual ones that fade away but ones that the woman next to us also fights, we’ll raise up together getting the change done and have impact (and a better feeling, fun and freedom, because we did it together, not alone).

»We research, write, exhibit, perform, advocate, and protest.« (f-architecture.com)

critical journal #3_ 29/06/2020_Antonia Leicht

Forming a female collective makes us stonger individually but also empowers woman beyond that (Photo by Carlota Guerrero)

The power of female friendships

Stronger together :

Afro feminist collective EFAE from spain (i-D Spain)

Sharing ideas, inspiring and support each other (Photo by Carlota Guerrero)

The more I am aware of this subject the more I notice the existence of female friendships which are going further by forming collectives, getting political or group up to fight for a common future.

»We could share, reflect, fight, and, above all, empower ourselves from a place of collective healing and vindication.« (EFAE collective, Spain)

»We research, write, exhibit, perform, advocate, and protest.« (f-architecture.com)

WHY ARE WOMEN PAID LESS THAN MEN? WHY IS THE UNCONTROLLED PAY GAP SO MUCH LARGER?

HOW TO ADVOCATE FOR PAY EQUITY ANALYSIS

THE GENDER WAGE GAP BY INDUSTRY

source: https://www.payscale.com/data/gender-pay-gap

TOP 20 JOBS WITH THE WIDEST GENDER PAY EQUITY GAPS

She has introduced women personages in her works as iconic at some point, they were not manly rather spiritually gorgeous and very organic with their nature, female nature...

I’ve chosen Lesya, because there is so much power in her work that has inspired me since school times, although at that time it was rather unconscious, one way or another, her personality itself is an inspiration for me .. This verse was written during a serious illness of the writer when she could not move freely. For me personally, this is an ode to optimism and great inner strength.

One of the most famous women in the entire history of Ukraine, an active participant in the national women’s movement - Lesya Ukrainka took place as a feminist. In her work, she rejected the patriarchal system, she was interested in the framework and circumstances in which the woman had the strength to stand up for herself as a person, she managed to save her heroines from the stigma of a slave. Her characters are strong, have their own point of view, their own opinion and their own vision of the world.

And bearing this dread burden, a resounding Song I’ll sing, a song of joyous praise. In the long dark ever-viewless night-time Not one instant shall I close my eyes, I’ll seek ever for the star to guide me, She that reigns bright mistress of dark skies.

Shall thus in grief and wailing for ill-fortune All the tale of my young years be told? No, I want to smile through tears and weeping, Sing my songs where evil holds its sway, Hopeless, a steadfast hope forever keeping, I want to live! You thoughts of grief, away!

Singing springtime too for me, some day.

Maybe blossoms will come up, unfolding

All that mighty crust of ice away.

And those burning tears shall melt, dissolving

I’ll pour bitter tears on them as due.

I’ll sow blossoms where the frost lies, chilling,

I’ll sow blossoms, brilliant in hue,

I shall live! You thoughts of grief, away!

Hopeless, a steadfast hope forever keeping,

Sing my songs where evil holds its sway,

Yes, I’ll smile, indeed, through tears and weeping

A weighty ponderous boulder I shall raise,

For now springtime comes, agleam with gold!

On poor sad fallow land unused to tilling

Up the flinty steep and craggy mountain

Thoughts away, you heavy clouds of autumn!

Lesya Ukrainka - Contra spem spero

LESYA UKRAINKA - CONTRA SPEM SPERO

“Our Fate” 1895

The photo on the right side looks very revealing at some point.. Only three women, including Natalia sitting among the majority of men. This is more than just a photo, it brings me to the understanding of the greatness of the spirit of this woman that has changed the history and so many lives including mine..

Natalia Ivanivna Kobrynska (from the Ozarkevych family, 1855-1920) is a Ukrainian writer, one of the mothers of Ukrainian feminism.

At that time, Ukraine was divided between neighboring states, so the specificity of the Ukrainian feminist movement is its close connection with the national liberation struggle. On December 8, 1884, at the first congress of the Society of Russian Women, the idea of the unity of Ukraine and work for the people was proclaimed, especially to raise the cultural level of peasant women. The ideas of feminism manifested themselves not only in the emergence of numerous women’s organizations - the emancipated woman penetrated into fiction and journalism.

eration of successors who will know: “However, to go step by step, to achieve their rights, leading to the highest development of humanity, to fight against contrary beliefs, which hold the most natural course of new issues, to prove at every opportunity the strength and ability given to women by nature, and to acquire all related positions with the new tasks of the time, which are making their way fresh, there must be a whole aspiration of the women’s movement. “

As already mentioned, Kobrynska herself believed that the most effective ideas are spread through the book. By sharing knowledge and views, it is possible not only to involve like-minded people in a common cause, but also to educate a gen-

The collections “Our Fate” clearly demonstrated that the range of interests of women is much wider than the dogma of “four K” - Kinder, Küche, Kirche, Kleider (children, kitchen, church, dress).

Their main topics are clothes, shoes, cosmetics and things that accompany a woman’s life, according to, apparently, marketers of these publications. In contrast, the collections “Our Fate” published not only works of art, but also literary reviews (about “Lourdes” by Emil Zol, “Hunger” by Knut Hamsun, “Notes of Goncourt”, etc.), folklore records (including translated Jewish folklore about relations between women - mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, grandmothers and grandchildren, etc.), articles about the women’s movement, appeals to the Austrian government for permission for women to study at universities, about the organization of “guards” (kindergartens), especially in villages. The idea of children’s institutions also belonged to Natalia Kobrynska. These “guards” were not only to make life easier for a working woman, but also to take care of raising children. It was suggested that the house be rented “with a garden or a spacious place where children could play.

What do most modern women’s publications look like?

NATALIA KOBRYNSKA AND THE FIRST WOMEN’S EDITIONS

Andrey - CEO

MALE ADVISOR, 2-ND EDITION

Alexander, model

I pose naked, but no woman harassed me..

MALE ADVISOR, 1-ST EDITION

The “BEAUTY“ of my team - is professionalism and not the appearance of the female employee

MALE ADVISOR, 5-TH EDITION

Manager (and superhero in life) Bogdan

My boss is a woman - and this does not hit me on my male pride

Men’s Guide is a special project of Gender in detail with the artist Alexander Grekhov, in which men give advice to other men about gender stereotypes. The purpose of the series is to show that men can and should support gender equality not because “feminists said so,” but because it is the basic values of an intelligent person. Some of these tips we took from real life. (Ukraine, 2020)

MALE ADVISOR

My clothes are telling you I am ... Rosea Lake, Vancouver Student, Posts Powerful ‘Judgments’ Photo Of Skirt Prudish. Flirty. Whore. Proper. Cheeky. Slut. These are just a few of the words that could be used to describe a woman’s sexual behavior based on her appearance alone, and 18-yearold college freshman Rosea Lake chose to display them starkly — on a young woman’s legs in a photo that has since gone viral. The photo, which the student took as part of an AP high school art class last year, depicts the back of her friend Ali MacKenzie’s legs, Lake told The Huffington Post. Horizontal lines are drawn up her leg, reflecting various skirt lengths, and next to each line is a description. Lake labelled the longest skirt length “matronly” and the shortest “whore.” (https://www.pomonalake.ca/judgments)

Sigrid Kressman-Zschach • “Ein Fremdkörper in der Bauwelt, in der Männer den Ton angaben.” • “Gegen die Durchsetzungsfähigkeit der schlanken Blondine hatten es Politiker und träge Verwaltungsbeamte schwer.” • „Die Chefin im Minirock“, wie der „Spiegel“ schrieb, hatte jede Menge Liebhaber und derbe Macho-Sprüche.” (30.05.2005 https://www.tagesspiegel.de/zeitung/der-kreisel-skandal/612162.html)

• “Sie steht auf schlanken Beinen fest im Geschäftsleben” • “Sie haben ihre 170 Zentimeter große und 112 Pfund schwere Arbeitgeberin im Minirock längst akzeptiert.” (DER SPIEGEL 22/1969 https://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/print/d-45741279.html)

- “A foreign body in the construction world, where the men were those who were taking the decisions. “ - “Politicians and sluggish administrators had a hard time accepting the slim blonde’s assertiveness. “ - “The boss in the mini skirt,” as the “Spiegel” wrote, had a lot of lovers and rough macho behavior. “ - “With her skinny legs, she is standing firmly on the bussines ground.” -“They accepted their 170-centimeter and 112-pound miniskirt employer long ago.”

.. an architect.

SIT LIKE A LADY!

SE. 1 EP. 1

Elise Nguyen, Critical Journal

Rosa Parks, an African American woman, was arrested and fined for refusing to yield her bus seat to a white man. This action and the following arrest was one of the initiators of the american civil rights movement. For me personally, it also marks one of step in feminist movement. A woman claimed a seat on the bus, claimed her right to something as simple as sitting.

How can something as simple and daily common as sitting be a privilege?

When presenting Assignment 1 - My Survival Tool, the relevance of a table and the hierarchy conducted by the sitting position of the family members were discussed. This entry of the critical journal is trying to broaden this discussion, widening the frame of consideration to not only the sitting positions at a dinner table but also the critical approach of sitting itself.

These two design projects (riot pant project from UdK students Buscaino & Bonakdar) and the anti manspreading chair (from University of Brighton student Laila Laurel) address the matter of men taking up more space than they need in public transport by spreading their legs. Of course, it is a provocation. I wonder, if by these projects, the discussion of toxic gender roles and ideas becomes polarizing or radicalized and therefore makes the discourse even more difficult. On the other hand, one sometimes might need these exaggerated means to draw attention to a matter. There is another word for when women take up space with their bags in public transport: shebagging. I see these gender related terms as very problematic Why do they have to contain the word „he“ or „she“? First, it assumes that there are only these two existing genders. Secondly, they still determine a very typical gender role that of course is an outcome of how societal structures socialize children at a very young age.

This is a very personal situation that I‘ve witnessed. It is difficult for me to see it critically, since I see the whole ceremony of this wedding as a tradition, conducted by centuries of culture and beliefs. I enjoy seeing old Vietnamese traditions still being practised. Nonetheless, I would eventually be happier seeing a gratitude and respect for the elderly instead of the respect for the simple fact of being a man. How does being born with a specific set of chromosomes make you a perfect representative of the family? Shouldn‘t it come down to experience, empathy and wisdom?

The head of the table - in many cultures, the head of the table used to be reserved for the head of the family. In patriarchial societies, this would be a man. He would also be the first one to be served and to start the meal. In Confucius rooted cultures, like Vietnam, this hierarchy is not only shown during everyday meals, but traditionally also executed during important events such as weddings or engagements. In this photo, the elderly sit separatley at another table in another room. Note, that there is only one woman sitting at a table with 7 male persons. As long as there is a male elderly left in one part of the family, that person is chosen to be the representative of a family. Even if he is only an uncle from the father‘s side.

PERIOD.

SE. 1 EP. 2

Elise Nguyen, Critical Journal

The Female Company, One Girl One Cup

Womxn on periods. For some reason in a lot of people‘s minds, menstruating is a shameful thing to „do“. It is taught to us from the beginning of adolescense. When talking about periods, we do it secretly, whispering sounds. When asking for a tampon, we do it, as if we were just buying cocaine from our local dealer. And when walking to the toilet, the tampon needs to be perfectly hidden in our fists, not giving a hint of what it might contain. In popular opinions, a womxn on PMS shall not be approached as she might be out of her senses.

Mentruation product brands are now trying to find a way to normalize the monthly bleeding of womxn. An Australien brand started an advertisement in which the normally blue coloured liquid is coloured in red - just like blood. „The female company“, that produces menstrual cups, published an educational video, explaining how to place the cup, remove it etc. Because the content is explicit and would be removed on social media or other streaming platforms, it is only available on porn websites. One can discuss, if showing the blunt truth in these advertisements is really necessary. Bodily fluids are normal and natural, but almost no advertisements are showing the real truth (eg. diaper or toiletpaper). Sometimes, it might be quite enjoyable not to be confronted with feces. Nonetheless, an overall depitction of menstruation needs to be questioned. Seeing companies and social media targeting these Pad Advertisement: Libra (red), Always (blue) issues is the first step into the right direction.

Menstruating is normal. Menstruating is natural.

WOMAN ARCHITECT

SE. 1 EP. 3

Elise Nguyen, Critical Journal

„What is your personal story?“ In this episode, I would like to shed light on one of the other seminars that were taking place in the frame of the „Women in Architecture“ Festival at the IfA Tu Berlin. As someone, who has been participating in the „Berliner Architektinnen - Oral History“ seminar, and seeing the incredible positive impact it has had not only on me but also on fellow colleagues and acknowledging how empowering and inspiring the seminar has been, this is a critical voice that is challenging future seminars that might want to pick up on the same or similar subject. In the course of the seminar I realized, that the exhibition deals a lot with how these „womxn architects“ based in Berlin have dealt with

the gender inequality, how they have juggled family and work and how they would see the future in the world of architecture. The inner conflict I was having (and that I know has been discussed several times) is that this exhibition was focusing a lot more on the personal aspect of being a womxn in the buidling sector, than on their actual work. While on one hand, I fully understand that this exhibition is mainly trying to show personal experiences and exhibit role models for future architects, it is, on the other hand, implying, that womxn architects are exhibited because of the fact of them being womxn. The interest is not on their work or their projects, but their personal life. I know it is important for us scholars to

Simone Noronha

be acquainted with architects from the whole gender spectrum and for this cause, it is vital to introduce solely womxn architects in our lives and show, how they have dealt with an injustice system. I am very positive, that this exhibition and seminar succeeds to do so. But do we know, how many children Frank Gehry has? Do we know, how is family was situated? All these question merely seem to matter, íf you are a womxn who is successful in their field. I do not have an absolute answer to this question, hence I want to keep this discussion open. There is no easy solution to this discourse. Nonetheless, I consider it an important one.

- Deborah Berke, dean of architecture at Yale University

„I don’t want to be known for being a good woman architect.“

ANATOMY CLASS 2.0

SE. 1 EP. 4

Elise Nguyen, Critical Journal

Right description of the female genital by Dr. Mangler

The Great Wall of Vagina by Jamie McCartney

- Dr. Mandy Mangler, „Gyncast“ Podcast

„In drugstores women can buy tons of „beauty“ products for the intimate area. Does the vulva have an image problem?“

clitoris earrings by clito.clito

Actually, this episode should do nothing but educate. Until recently (1998, discovered by Helen O’Connell), it has not been fully known how the female genitals anatomically look like. In a lot of anatomy books for medicine students, they are still wrongly depicted. Artists, filmmakers, podcasters etc. have taken the chance to use their voice to educate on what we should‘ve already known since school.

What the...

The act of men sitting in public transport with his legs wide appart

WHAT IS MANSPREADING?

FEMEINE and a MASCULINE way to INHABBIT SPACE

Besides, they have taught us so many times, how women have to close their legs in order to protect themselves, so there is a

Space occupation shows how men learn to act in a masculine way

Only if you find enough courage to tell that guy to move, or even say “excuse me” , you can sit. Of course, we know S-bahn or U-bahn seats are not very comfortable but it is simply not fair that even that personal space, they take away.

They way some man behave (not only) in public transport, spreading their legs out, is an act of pure patriarchy. In this small, but annoying details we found that the way they(boys) and we(girls) have been educated has been different. Women and people who sit next to this macho-guys feel physcially shrinked. You can actually feel your personal space is being invaded, taken away.

Since we were little, women have been taught to behave in a feminine way, keeping your legs shut, protecting your flower. Use as little place as possible. But we women have bigger hips, bigger boobs. shouldn’t we use as much space as we need? You may think this is just a detail. But the discomfort that comes with it is unbelivebely high. You are tired, someone is overlooking you and you try to find a seat. You find one, or half of one and you take it. But you did not escape the visual harrasement. Now it is next to you.

Sources:

https://www.abc.es/espana/madrid/abci-manspreading https://www.europafm.com/noticias/viral/joven-disena-silla-acabar-manspreading https://identity-mag.com/dear-men-please-kill-manspreading/ https://psicologiaymente.com/social/manspreading

“ We think that giving it a name and making visible those daily forms of machismo that go unnoticed is the wayto move forward, to become more aware, to see what we didn't see before and to leave inequality and machismo behind.” Clara Serra, spanish deputy. 2017.

Brendan Fraser

also known as pocrescophobia

Fear or becoming obese or gaining weight

WHAT IS OBESE-PHOBIA?

spent most of her life hating her body but now spreads the message of body positivity to more than a million followers on Instagram

MEGAN JAYNE CRABB

“I couldn't go on with that life. My eating disorder had consumed me, and I lost a lot of time and refused to let it continue to consume me fu further.”

https://www.healthline.com/health/obesophobia https://psicologiaymente.com/social/gordofobia https://www.bbc.com/mundo/noticias-50460553

Source:

Eventhough we are contantly exposed to advertisement with sculptoric figures, that does not mean that if we don’t look like them we are unhappy with our own body. And when or if changes it is our own business. So, why should they mind what we do with our bodies?

Through the years, advertisement has created an aesthetic pattern of how people should look like. Healthy, fit, slim, skinny, without hear, you name it. And we see this patterns everyday: in magazines, newspaper, social media, even in the streets on the signboards. Specially for models and ballet dancers, this pressure of having the “perfect body” never ends. Ballerinas can’t weight over 50kilos, because then the other dancers can’t pick them up for jumps. Models need to have a six-pack and be at least 1.70m tall, every day. If not, maybe they can be photoshoped... But why? So we can feel worse about ourselves? You look so much better, did you lose weight? Why the hell should they care?

Specially during quarantine we have felt the fear of gaining weight. We don’t go to the gym anymore and it is hard to mantain your daily rutine. But why are we so afraid of becoming fat o not as skinny as we want?

WHO ACTUALLY CARES?

A hormonal traetment to get you to lose weight without a reboot effect

Reduce your sizes in 3 simple steps:

Theodore Roosevelt

“COMPARISON IS THE THIEF OF JOY”

WHAT IS RACISM?

Will Smith

Beyoncé

RACISM IS NOT GETTING WORSE IT IS GETTING FILMED.

George Floyd w as m urdered in the street by a policem an w ho held his knee on Floyds neck for 8 m inutes. Even w hen George said he couldn’t breathe, the policm en did not stop.

Oxford Languages Definition https://www.latercera.com/mundo/noticia/washington/ Instagram: #blacklivesmatter #georgefloyd #breonnataylor BBC Nwes

Source:

Mayor Muriel Bowser renamed the last stretch of 16th Street the Anti-Racism Movement in response to police repression during protests over the death of an African-American citizen at the hands of the police.

Washington changes the name of the avenue leading to the White House to "Black Lives Matter"

What is important here is that you can change your opinion and be able to change yourself once you have the information. Because many people are simply not aware of this problem. What happend to George Floyd or Breonna Taylor has happend many times and not only in the U.S. This are daily struggles in the Middel East and Southamerica. In Chile for example, in October 2019 during the so-called social outburst, many people got dramatically injuerd in protests (ran over by police vehicules, losing sight). This has happend in the past and it should not be continued.

After the murder of George Floyd at the hands of the police many injustices came to light. The discrimintion that minority ethnical groups receive every day has been neglected or been taken as normal all over the world. It not enough to “not be racist”. You have to become anti-racist. It is not an easy path, first you need to get out of your comfort zone and dare to learn and acknoledge about this problem and how it also concerns you, because even if you have your priviledges you can help to create awareness for those who haven´t. After seeking for answers and educate yourseld you can prepare to promote and advocate for equality. To be able to speak up for others and to stop racism in action it’s really hard. Be strong.

prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against a person or people on the basis of their membership of a particular racial or ethnic group, typically one that is a minority or marginalized.

American feminist, anti-racist activist, scholar speaker and senior research sceintist of the Wellesley Centers for Women. Beyoncé

Peggy McIntosh

WHITE PRIVILEGE as an “INVISIBLE PACKEGE OF UNEARNED ASSETS”

a special right, advantage, or immunity granted or available only to a particular person or group.

WHAT IS SOCIAL PRIVILEGE?

WORKPLACE DISCRIMINATION IN GERMANY

https://guides.rider.edu/privilege Instagram: Lets talk about privilege @mtv 10.06.2020 https://nationalseedproject.org/Key-SEED-Texts/white-privilege-unpacking-the-invisible-knapsack https://www.rcinet.ca/en/2019/12/10/putting-some-numbers-on-racism-in-canada/ Federal Anti-Discrimination Agency @DE

Source:

EMPHAZISING SUPPORTING CARING ACCEPTING LOVING

START

JUDGING PUTTING BARRIERS STARING CRITICIZING LOOKING DOWN

STOP

Privilege describes things that everyone should experience. For example, as a straight person I don’t encounter people passing judgement when kissing my pa partner in public. That is not a bad thing, it should be that way for everyone, no matter their sexual orientation. Other examples related with the labelling of gender, wheelchair accesibilty and language sign translation (I can go on) are stil not considered in our daily life actions and thoughts.

Some of us think that privileged people are the bad guys, when the problem actually relies on being able to offer the same possibilities to everyone, no matter their race, age, gender, religion or physical abilities. To acknologe privilige is about challenging the system that perpetuates inequality. Understanting this is an important step in working to make a world where this obstacles don’t exist.

CAN YOU RELATE?

Meghan Markle was discriminated by her race, and even her career when she was engaged to Prince Harry . The british Monarchy was not completly happy with this marriage and this year the couple decided to quit their royal title.

HAVE YOU EXPERIENCED IT?

such as race, age, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, citizenship, religion, physical ability, health, level of education, and others.

Privilege, as understood and described by researchers, is a function of multiple variables of varying importance,

Privilege can be diffucult to talk about, some people feel blamed when they have privileges. Being privileged does not mean you are rich or bad, it just means that there are some challenges you don’t have to face beacaus of who youa re. But we do deserve the accesibility for most of our every day activites. The difference is that many people is not getting those chances.

DO YOU IDENTIFY?

How is it that over the last 100 years we have gone from viewing a woman’s ankle as risque and publically unacceptable to plastering larger than life images of women wearing next to nothing on public billboards?

Is it just that the people who make the decisions are men and see these portrayals as acceptable? (the chief executive of the brand responsible, a man, likened feminists to ‘terrorists’ after recieving criticism and death threats) Or is it that society in general, inculding people of all genders, have become so used to it that they don’t even question it anymore?

It made me think back to an advert in the UK from 2015 that was eventually taken down after public outcry for objectifying women and sexualising them in a way that is not applied to men. While in this instance it was met with resistance, it is certainly not the only one of its kind.

Coincidentaly after discussing the treatment of women in the seminar on Tuesday and how it often differs from the treatment of men, I came across the daily news show on ZDF and was horrified to see a clip that shoped this contrast very clearly. Not only was the clip of a woman cleaning, having just shown a male politician, but she was first introduced by a shot showing the bottom of her short dress as she walked into a hotel! Who decided this was an appropriate way to present this woman on public television and what was the camera man thinking!

Why is it that her name is never mentioned alongside his? Was it simply a case of the times that women were never recognised in their own right and it was not believed that they could be intellectually equal to men or is it something that continues to occur today?

It is widely assumed, although not proven, that she played a significant role in helping Einstein with the Theory of Relativity amongst other things. It is not proven because he never accredited her and his is the name that gained household popularity and global fame while she cared for his children and ironed his shirts.

As in so many cases both past and present having children led to the end of her career. She dropped of university out completely to care for her children and would never again work on her own research.

Mileva Maric was a scientist. She went to Zürich Polytechnic (now ETH) in 1896 to study physics and maths and was one of the first women to do so. Albert Einstein also went to Zürich Polytechnic to study physics and maths. Mileva often scored the same marks in exams as her future husband and must have had a lot of potential to have been accepted when it was so rare for a woman’s scientific capabilities to be recognised. She soon started to collaborate with Einstein and help him with his theories and as a result neglected her own studies. Then she got pregnant.

Yet, when we think of these practices and the work they have done we think of the man behind the name. We think of Richard Rogers and Norman Foster. We don’t think of the women who share the same last name. We might not even have considered that there was a woman behind the name. We certainly wouldn’t jump to the conclusion that Richard and Su Brumwell worked on the Pompidou Centre or that Norman Foster and Wendy Cheesman worked on the pioneering Willis Building. How many more women stand behind the famous men that we all acknowledge and respect today? How many women have failed to receive accreditation or recognition for the parts they played in helping those men get to where they are today? And how many women have sacrificed their own future for the promotion of their husband’s?

Wendy Cheesman (centre left) and Su Brumwell (centre right) with Richard Rogers and Norman Foster as Team 4.

Wendy Cheesman and Su Brumwell also fall victim to the famous husband effect. The two women joined with Norman Foster and Richard Rogers to create the practice Team 4 in 1968. Wendy Cheesman’s sister, Georgie Cheesman, also joined temporarily and played a crucial role as she was the only fully qualified architect and therefore the only one who could enable the group’s ideas to become a reality. After Wendy Cheesman became Wendy Foster and Su Brumwell became Su Rogers the group dissolved and both couples founded separate practices together. Both practices went on to design pioneering buildings that became emblems of their time and an inspiration for much of the architecture we see today. Foster and Rogers became world famous names and still are.

In reality we should all be doing our bit and also putting the lid down!

The toilet is meant to be sat on and the urinal was designed for those who want to stay standing. The only reason the seat is up in the first place is because men are simply too lazy to pull down their trousers and use the toilet in the way it is designed to be used; something women always have to do. They are then also too lazy to put it back down again when their finished. Thus there is a problem for everyone.

Toilets, in some recognisable form, are a technology that dates back to the time when people still lived in castles and they haven’t changed that much since. They were a natural progression from the camber pot or hole in the ground and allowed for better sanitation and the development of a sewage system. They were also designed to be sat on. Whatever your gender and whatever your purpose, everyone can, use a toilet in the it was designed to be used. That’s what it’s there for and that’s why, a few hundred years later, we saw the emergence of the urinal.

The issue of ‘leaving the seat up’ is often a debate in many mixed gender flats or households but why? ‘If men have to lift the seat up to pee can women also not do the other half of the job and put it back down again?’ is the common argument but the fact of the matter is, it is not their responsibility. It is only due to men’s laziness that the seat is up in the first place.

We all know that feeling when you rush to the bathroom or sleepily sit down on the toilet only to be met by the cold, dirty ceramic rim of a toilet with the seat up.

When you think about it everything surrounding relieving oneself affects different genders differently. From the length of the queue at festivals and events to being able to sit in a park for hours without having to worry about the finding the nearest public toilet. In such cases a man will simply find some bushes (or even the side of a building for the less discrete) and simply turn his back and relieve himself. No one will blink an eye. A woman on the other hand will either have to cross her legs, venture into much denser vegetation (if there is any) or spend countless minutes searching for a public toilet that she may, most probably, have to pay for. The sight of a woman peeing in public is far more socially unacceptable than the sight of a man. Knowing where the nearest good toilet spot is is something of an achievement for women. Why is it that public toilet facilities are not more widely available? Why is something that serves such a basic human need not more of a priority for cities when it affects all of us (men may be able to relieve themselves wherever they choose but it doesn’t mean they want to given the choice)? Is there a greater issue at stake; that a functional universal design for all genders is just not possible when our bodies are all so different? We have found some great new solutions such as the ‘Shewee’ that enables women to use a urinal but are they simply missing the point? Do we need to just accept that we are all different and that two solutions are necessary that address everyones needs? Or do men just need to start sitting down?

The virus has also played a part in highlighting injustices as while we all have the possibility to contract it, it is the people who can’t afford to stay at home

Pride and its emphasis on understanding the people around us and the importance of internationality comes on the back of the killing of George Floyd and the huge resurgence of the Black Lives Matter movement. Both Stonewall and the case of George Floyd were instances of police brutality and highlighted how many fights share the same enemy. The anger, frustration and recognition of a common cause has brought many people together to share and protest alongside each other and make the case even stronger. The new prominence of the digital era has even brought support to the US all way from Korea’s K-pop fans showing we don’t have to be subject to the same exact prejudices to fight the same fight.

Pride 2020 was always going to be important, it marked the 50th anniversary of the first pride march in New York following the Stonewall riots in 1969. While COVID-19 meant the marches and parades had to transfer to the digital realm, it didn’t mean there wasn’t a sense of coming together. The theme for London Pride this year was #YouMeUsWe and the campaign called for people to make an act of allyship and understand their own communities.

getty images https://www.cityam.com/pride-in-a-pandemic-putting-intersectionality-top-of-the-agenda/

The global pandemic, despite all its grievances, has given rise to an unprecedented level of unity. This could almost be expected given the fact that the whole world is under attack from an unseen killer. But it is not just over fighting the virus that people have come together.

https://prideinlondon.org/about-us/campaigns/you-me-us-we/ https://www.forbes.com/sites/unicefusa/2020/06/26/the-case-for-intersectionality-commemorating-pride-amidst-covid-19/#d734be31ff5e

These are all points that were already part of the public discussion. Nothing that has arisen in recent months is new, it has been around for years, it was just never appreciated or followed on such a great scale (and it still has a long way to go). So why is it that a global pandemic has brought people together over issues not just concerning COVID-19? Is it because suddenly there is an injustice that can affect all of us? While even the virus seems to discriminate we are all susceptible and no one is in charge. Most importantly however, is this the turning point that everyone has been waiting for? Or once the pandemic is over will we all return to our previous ways, happy in the comfort that some sense of ‘normality’ is back?

Kimberlé Crenshaw, the woman who coined the term intersectionality, was a guest on the DNA of a Maker podcast on 30th June and spoke to the presenter, Lilliana Vazquez about this value of inclusive social movements. She emphasised again the importance of recognising how someone can use their position of privilege to help others win their fights. That injustice is something we can all play a part in eradicating even if we are not subject to it ourselves and that one prejudice should not be seen as separate from another.

The lockdowns across the world are also forcing people to stay home in environments that may not be safe and there are particular concerns for the well-being of many LGBTQ youth of all races. This is again revealing the importance of intersectionality and how people can be victim to not just one but many simultaneous injustices.

and have to continue to go out and work who are most effected. The ones who have the most cramped living conditions or no access to good health care. This clear differing of impact is also often reflected in the ethnicity of the people effected and is very clearly revealing the injustices that are already at play.

CRITICAL SURVIVAL JOURNAL

Some weeks ago, I stumbled upon this Instagram page. Antiflirting2. Their bio says, they fight sexual harassment online. After scrolling and scrolling for quite some time, I noticed how my jaw had dropped reading all these messages people got sent online. I could not believe what I read in some of these posts. I felt sad. This page, antiflirting is made by two young women living in Vienna. They were sending each other sexist messages they received online. Until they noticed how many of their friends were also getting disgusting messages. So they started this Instagram page where they publish all messages anonymously. One post is more outrageous than the other. And I began to think. Did I ever receive any message like this? What would I do if that would happen? What would I have thought some years ago when I was younger and maybe less educated about the topic? I mean, I maybe would have been as disgusted as now. These kind of messages are not ok and just disgusting. I may be would have thought ‚ah this person is just joking around. He is only flirting it‘s not meant that way.‘ I think I was too young or too shy and maybe also not educated enough to really address this as a problem. Also, this kind of behaviour is often trivialized. It is said that you should feel flattered because someone is showing interest in you. Actually, I can’t really remember if or when I got any messages like the ones displayed on the Instagram page. But the same happens in real life outside of the Internet. I think every woman, or at least every one of my female friends has experienced some kind of harassment, the same kind as these messages. For every one of them there is a different limit, for someone a comment doesn’t matter but for another person a comment can have a lot of impact on one ‘s life. I do not want to talk about the situations that I encountered. But just that I still remember every one of them, makes me feel different. I walk down the street at night or neighbourhoods I don‘t know differently than I did before, because in the back of my mind there are always these experiences. Even though I can say nothing bad happened to me, just the usual comments. But why has the ‚usual‘ have to make me feel bad? I talked to my boyfriend and other male friends about this topic, the messages online or the comments on the street. And I can happily say that none of them can explain themselves why anyone would do that. (Maybe that‘s why we are friends...) We came to the conclusion that some of the people sending the messages are just not aware of their impact? Maybe stupid little teenage boys? But I feel like in 2020 everyone should be educated enough to know that first of all sending dick pics is forbidden in Germany and also why would anyone want to receive such a message. The other explanation was, that they feel empowered. They feel like they are standing on top of the person receiving these messages. They may feel aroused by sending sexual messages and don‘t care about the feelings of the receiving person. In the end it is just about them. I think the topic is way too complex and there are different people who do this because of different reasons, but the most important thing is to show it to everyone. So maybe an uneducated teenage boy can see and understand how it feels for the person receiving the message and can change his behaviour. It is not about making anyone specifically feel bad or expose him or her. I think it is a good way to show it to a broad variety of people on this usually very superficial website like Instagram.

CRITICAL SURVIVAL JOURNAL Minnette de Silva

* 01.02.1918 † 24.11.1998

After her studies in Bombay, the AA in London and becoming the first Asian woman to become a RIBA associate, Minnette de Silva returned to her native country Sri Lanka in the year of the country’s independence from Britain, and became one of only two women in the world at the time to set up a practice in her own name. De Silva pioneered post-independence architecture in Sri Lanka, combining modernism with traditional and artisanal methods of construction and decoration. Through the progressive arts magazine MARG, which she founded and co-edited with her sister and whose editorial board was made up of key figures in the arts in India and Ceylon, along with her later work as a professor in Hong Kong, she also formulated a theoretical position on the formal language of regional modernism (a term she used a quarter of a century before the architectural historian Kenneth Frampton).

de Silva with Picasso, American sculptor Jo Davidson and Mulk Raj Anand at the 1948 World Congress of Intellectuals for Peace

The buildings and writings of de Silva had a huge influence on a number of male architects whose careers gained momentum whilst, after a decade of regular commissions, her work began to wane. Her tough responses to chauvinistic demands from clients and contractors, who for example forced her to get her design endorsed by an engineer in London before a contractor would agree to build- led to her being marginalised as a „difficult woman“. Though she continued to write and lecture late into her career, her contribution to architecture only now begins to receive the attention it deserves.

Senanayake Flats, Colombo, 1954

Asoka Amarasinghe House, Colombo, 1954

Chandra Amarasinghe House Colombo, 1960

Karunaratne House, Kandy, 1951

The Corona crisis has changed every one’s life. The impact was different for everyone. Depending on one’s status, student, job, on job, children no children, married not married...

CRITICAL SURVIVAL JOURNAL

The German sociologist Jutta Allmendinger presented quite a dark scenario. She claims that progress women made in terms of equality was set back 30 years again due to the corona crisis. This prognosis made by the Berlin Wissenschaftszentrum für Sozialforschung (WZB) also claims that women often find themselves back at their traditional roles and even though the country is opening up again it is just the start. 30 years ago, in the 1990s less than 60 percent of women were in employment. (1991 it was just 57 percent). Today (2018) the numbers reached 72 percent. The biggest issue during that time was, that there was nearly no childcare for children under 3 or full-time day school. Also, the traditional role of men and women were not questioned enough. 30 years is a long time but with the corona crisis 16 percent of parents work less but it usually concerns the mothers. 24 percent of women reduced their working hours and a distinct higher number of mothers excused themselves from work because of closed kindergartens and schools. (numbers from survey by Hans-Böckler-Stiftung) The biggest difference from 30 years ago is that now women simultaneously work their jobs in home office while also taking care of their kids. Only 62 percent of the couples could maintain the before equally divided household chores, even though it became more during the pandemic. Communication is key but often during the negotiations the person earning less comes off worse, which in a lot of cases are women.

In an attempt out of this vicious circle, many women just do both, they stretch themselves in all directions to achieve both, which can even be observed with women earning more than their partner. Sally Howard explains this in her book “The Home Stretch”. These claims by Jutta Allmendinger were made in May. I was trying to research if there was proof that this is actually happening, and I read some study/survey saying that it may not be as dramatic as Jutta Allmendinger says but still there are some truths in it. A survey by the Bundesinstitut für Bevölkerungsforschung states that fathers that before the crisis only did 33 percent of household chores and childcare, now their contribution went up to 41 percent, a number which has never been that high before. In this study amongst other factors, 3600 people were asked weekly about their life situation during lockdown. According to the study fathers took two hours more time for work at home. Which sounds like a refreshing change but is often due to their workplaces offering short-time work and their wives often being essential workers at the supermarket or in hospitals. Additionally, there is some sort of double inequality, because on many occasions women work in jobs where there are bad working conditions and they are less paid. The short-time work money often is not distributed in these fields. That could result in women doing the care work in the family because they cannot go without the higher salary of the father. So, this study shows that mostly in lower income families, men taking more responsibility at home has often to do with their wives being essential workers and not with a change of mind. So how can this change be pushed in the right direction and be maintained after the crisis is resolved? One first step is paying care workers and other essential workers a higher salary. Care jobs are either not paid at all or rather poorly. With more money these workers find themselves on a higher position negotiating the family tasks and it gives them more security. The pandemic unraveled this imbalance of people being essential workers and also not being appreciated enough in society to give them enough money to take care after themselves and their families. I think we can be glad about what we already have achieved in our society regarding equality of women and men especially after reading how the numbers already have changed in these last 30 years. But a crisis like the Covid-19 pandemic shows how fragile these progresses are, and it uncovers issues which are still amongst us that show how were not there yet. 1: https://www.wiwo.de/erfolg/beruf/zurueck-an-den-herd-zerstoert-corona-frauen-karrieren/25802466.html 2: Screenshots aus: https://www.bib.bund.de/Publikation/2020/pdf/Eltern-waehrend-der-Corona-Krise.pdf?__blob=publicationFile&v=7 3: https://www.welt.de/politik/deutschland/article206555387/Corona-Gau-Kita-zu-Schule-zu-und-jetzt.html 4: https://www.vorwaerts.de/artikel/gleichberechtigung-trotz-corona-lohnstruktur-ran

CRITICAL SURVIVAL JOURNAL

In the art world there is this myth that a female artist having a baby is going to make it impossible to work. No one presumes a child would change a manâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;s work of art. Why is it always a question with women? The first statement is continously passed down, not only by gallerists and men but also by leading female artists for example Marina Abramovic or Tracey Emin. Women constantly have to prove the opposite. If they want kids they have to prove that they are a good mother and also a good artist and that their work is not compromised by having children.

TOP TEN MALE AND FEMALE ARTISTS How many kids do they have?

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VcJpoJv-OKhO77CkEFSeBiEyzetnCxAl/view

Marina Abramovic Interview 2016 with Tagesspiegel Tracey Emin 2014 Independent

I found this artist Katharina Bosse, who after getting a lot of backlash when she was pregnant, created a whole series about motherhood, her family and her children. She completely changed how she was seen by the public and took back the narrative. She said now that she is only seen as a mother and people define her as a mother, she is doing a continous work and making her motherhood the only topic of it. It wonâ&#x20AC;&#x2DC;t be possible to not see her as a mother anymore. This apporach worked out for Katharina Bosse. Even with children she is successful as an artist with her work at the MoMA and professor for photography and her work published in various magazines. http://www.katharinabosse.com

We seldom see or know what the other conditions of the Hegemony Beach feel like. Those basking on the beach do not know what it means to drown.

The problem polluting the water lies on the ocean bed, scattered across the surface of the earth: unbearably reeking, rotting, toxic dead fish.

Finally we have black women (ah the familiar state I know so well). We drown in the depths of the ocean, looking up at the glimmers of light and constantly exerting our efforts to swim through the airless water. From the beach, this water looks like a nonchalant blue dream, but from the depths one can see the reality of the green toxic liquid; a sight only truly visible from the perspective of the black women swimming below. Sometimes, on a rare occasion, a black woman will make it onto the beach, and when she gets there, it is shocking to everyone including her.

Then we have white women, swimming in the water, tiringly so, with no break on the beach. Having to exert quite a bit of effort to reach the beach, with some reaching the shore. Absorbing the chemicals in the not so refreshing ebb and flow of the toxic ocean that we are now aware of, they are able to observe life beneath the water by dipping under, but are able to come up for a breath of fresh air.

And so black men sit swimming in the water, which might I mention looks refreshing and okay from the white man’s perspective, but is noticeably unsettling to the black man who still has the privilege of breathing fresh air whilst his feet remain soggy.

White men have and continue to sit on the soft sandy beach constantly breathing in fresh air. In the architectural space, it is difficult to distinguish the hegemonic imbalances between black men and white women, because black people were (and are) generally absent from architectural historic record whilst statistics today show that men in general dominate the profession. The racial distribution of this group is not reported on commonly, and one can infer that the problem is not as pressing. So, in this space, and according to my reading on the matter, it seems as though black men have more privilege in the architectural space than white women do.

Hegomony Beach:

Today’s Matri-Archi post speaks to the complex overlay of gender and racial issues that have made architectural practice a hegemonic space. The post takes particular concern with “Women in Architecture” as a spectacle in today’s industry; an industry that in fact has an apparent and palpable lack there of. In order to explain this complex issue that I suspect is ever present in other professions of the built environment, I shall describe the Architectural Place for professionals.

Concurrently, there is the greater influential driver of this trend: the social

The numbers differ according to countries, but similar imbalances are everpresent in the US, UK and EU. Why is this so? From the readings I’ve come across, identifying the issues has been thin. However a common thread seems to be the income gap between men and women who hold the same position. According to the 2016 Women in Architecture Survey, the gender pay gap at partner and director level differs by 55% with the gap becoming smaller lower down along the experience ladder (Mairs 2017). Again, why? The moneymaking system in the architectural profession varies according to commission and project opportunity, which is a factor to be cognizant of when reading these results. I’m not too sure what drives this trend in businesses with co-directors of different gender, but the issue persists. Institutions such as Women in Architecture South Africa have been launched to put policies in place that legally rectify these pragmatic inequalities. So we can review this in a year or two again.

The architectural profession has extremely high gender inequality and biases. According to the South African Council for the Architectural Profession in 2015, of the 8,842 Registered Professionals (RP’s), only twenty-one percent (21%) are women. Of this group, 271 Professionals, or fifteen percent (15%) are previously disadvantaged individuals (Cullis 2015), which in South African terms means those affected by historical injustice and more explicitly, people of colour (POC). In the same year, the South African population was at 54 956 920 people. Of this group 50 422 912 were POC and only 271 were registered as POC women architectural professionals (Stats South Africa 2015). This shows the palpable racial and gender imbalance in the profession.

Architecture is perceived as an ideal neutral, which it is not.

Architecture is perceived as an ideal neutral, which it is not. “Women in Architecture” is seen as a homogenous group

The dead fish can be dissected into two (problems):

In describing Hegemony Beach, the intention is not to find an immediate solution, because as much as the issue is pressing, convincing the other members of the space to look beyond their conditions and to help one another, requires a collaborative effort yes? And so, the intention here is to fish out the problem, and place it on every plate on the shore. So that we can all experience the unbearable odor of the problem, and figure out how to rid the beach of its hegemonic problem in order for everyone to enjoy the beach.

Those swimming are struggling, but cannot claim a similar struggle to those drowning in the depths of the green water. And those, well us, black women, in the depths, can see all the other strata with the least access to the beach. It is from here that intersectionality is most observed, be it as painful as it is.

Accolade is well received and appreciated by women in the industry. However, the recurrence of this trend coupled with the slow transforming presence of women in the industry has come to a point where architecture becomes epistemolically male. Mandrup is assertive and frank in mentioning that even though this tendency aims to perhaps include women, it does quite the opposite. It exposes a quota-like behavior that the profession conforms to and

Marking this year’s International Women’s Day, Dezeen’s list of 50 inspirational female architects and designers made special recognition of Danish architect Dorte Mandrup who responded by saying, “Allow me to explain; I am not a female architect. I am an architect. When we talk about gender, we tend to talk about women. Men do not really have a gender. They are just… neutral. Nongender. That is why you do not recognize the term “male architect” Despite all of the efforts to make female architects feel special, the result is quite the opposite” (Madrup 2017).

Historically and globally today, there is special mention of “Women Architects” amongst normal “Architects” in the industry. This fuels the idea of gender binaries, and more particularly to this post, fuels the idea that male architects are synonymous with the “ideal neutral”.

“Women in Architecture” is NOT a homogenous group.

As a recent architecture student at the University of Cape Town in South Africa in the continent of Africa, I can testify to never coming across a black woman architect in my design course outline. Aside from Zaha Hadid, but she was a “starchitect” which is an issue we’ll get onto in a bit. It was only at the advent of #RhodesMustFall and the decolonial movement where in a (yes singular) theory course in my programme of study responded to the evidently heavy Western curriculum by including and restructuring the course and its reading list. I must mention that this was initiated by the personal agency of the professor of that History and Theory of Architecture course. However, in order to truly shift the image of Architecture as a Le Corbusier cigar smoking white man sitting on his modernist I often laugh at this particular example of micro reform because the Professor is in fact a European white man; evidence of the symbiosis of white allyship. I thank him for introducing me to the works of endless writers who have moulded my perception of architecture greatly today. This include architectural Professor Lesley Lokko, writer and photographer Teju Cole, artist Joy Mboya amongst a growing list of others.

and educational culture of Architecture. Despina Stratigakos, author of Where are all the Women Architects paints the reality of the multifaceted issue when saying, “although women represent nearly half of architecture students, women are underrepresented among faculty, especially in design branches. Course syllabuses also heavily favor men’s work and writings, leaving students with the impression that women have contributed little of value” (Stratigakos 2016).

Bibliography Cullis, Jacquie. SACAP Announces Women In Architecture South Africa (WiASA) programme. September 2015, 2015. http://www.sacapsa.com/news/249829/ SACAP-Announces-Women-In-Architecture-South-Africa-WiASA-programme. htm (accessed August 20, 2017). Mairs, Jessica. Gender pay gap is broadening shows Women in Architecture survey. February 10, 2017. https://www.dezeen.com/cookies-policy/ (accessed August 20, 2017). Stats South Africa. Mid-year population estimates. Statistical release, Pretoria: StatsSA, 2015, 8. Stratigakos, Despina. Why is the world of architecture so male-dominated? April 21, 2016. http://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-stratigakos-missingwomen-architects-20160421-story.html (accessed August 20, 2017). Madrup, Dorte. “I am not a female architect. I am an architect”. May 25, 2017. https://www.dezeen.com/2017/05/25/dorte-mandrup-opinion-column-genderwomen-architecture-female-architect/ (accessed August 20, 2017). Lushaba, Lwazi. “Dr Lwazi Lushaba on the Black Schema at UCT-Lecture 3-Part 1/3.” Dr Lwazi Lushaba on the Black Schema at UCT-Lecture 3-Part 1/3. Cape Town: Youtube, June 26, 2017.

We all have a right to breathe on our beach.

The tail: An extension of the head. The culture incepted during the educational experience. It is the normalization of architecture as a male dominated or rather defined career. Sure, we have increasing numbers, but we need to look at the multifaceted scales on the fish – equal pay, appropriate numbers and intersectional cultural inclusion that do not define power complexity and impede others from advancing in their careers.

The head: academic curricula remain untransformed, with pinches of personal agency from progressive educators that unfortunately does not suffice. Educators are transient in institutions, but institutions have the capacity to make fundamental long lasting cultural changes.

So there you have it, the dead fish.

maintains the status quo of keeping women as trophies who “made it” in the architectural sphere. Look at Jane Jacobs, Lina Bo Bardi and Eve Ensler; the single few (white) women who made it onto the history shelves. Retrospectively, if the profession continues on this trend, architectural record will remain a white male defined space.

Invisible Cities - a quite famous book full of imaginary stories about cities of a manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dream. The author takes the reader on to journeys to 55 places just through words, that describe them very clear and evocative. While reading you can almost feel how it is to be there. The stories are told by the traveller Marco Polo in a series of conversations with the chinese emporer Kublai Khan. All of the cities are beautiful, ideal and non is the same. Strange that the narrator only talks about the man experiencing the city and that each bears a name of a woman! Strange that the descriptions let me think that these cities are female. So why is beauty seen as female? Or is it simply a manâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s desire? What if Calvino chose a female narrator?

de col on ize

“Afrikanisches Viertel” in Berlin - just like any other representation of a country like Chinatown or Little Italy? No, definetly not. The plans of the district come from Carl Hagenbeck (1844-1913) who was a merchand of animals and humans and had planned to exhibit not only animals but also humans in todays “Afrikanische Viertel” in a so called “Völkerausstellung” - a human zoo. At the beginning of the last century the Lüderitzstraße, Petersallee and Nachtigalplatz were named after the German colonialists Adolf Lüderitz, Carl Peters and Gustav Nachtigal. These three men killed and plundered on behalf of the German Empire during the colonial times. It’s been many decades since the Black Community and other initiatives started to demand a change of these names and already two years since the district council decided to rename those streets. But it hasn’t happened yet.

b e rl in

Ideas were Anna-Mungunda-Straße, Maji-Maji-Allee and Manga-Bell-Platz. But residents demonstrated against the renaming and another proposal was considered: to dedicate the streets to different people of the same name so they don’t have to change the names. But wouldn’t that just conceal a racist meaning? It seems like Berlin accepts the atrocities of colonialism and legitimates Germany’s brutal occupations. According to the senat it is important to include the difficult history and not to vanish it from our awareness and to create memories and memorials. Which I totally agree to. Shouldn’t we then ask those people who are affected - the Black Community? Don’t they say that these streets should be named in a way that they remind us of the african resistance movements? How can it be possible that residents can stop the renaming even though they’re not personally affected?

Berlin has many other postcolonial traces that glorify the German colonial rule. But I think we entered new times where we have to set new values and perspectives. Berlin needs a decolonisation so the colonized people can colonize themselve.

https://www.dw.com/de/die-schatten-des-deutschen-kolonialismus/a-53860535 https://www.deutschlandfunkkultur.de/widerstand-gegen-manga-bell-platz-wie-in-berlin-um-einen.976.de.html?dram:article_id=455728 https://web.archive.org/web/20150923183758/http://www.berlin-postkolonial.de/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=78:afrikanisches-viertel&catid=10:mitte&Itemid=16 https://eineweltstadt.berlin/publikationen/stadtneulesen/ http://www.africavenir.org/de/veranstaltung-details/cal/event/detail/2017/10/14/booklaunch_no_humboldt_21_dekoloniale_einwaende_gegen_das_humboldt_forum/view-list%7Cpage_id-595.html

Bodyform: #wombstories

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZoFqIxlbk0

#wombstories is a video/ ad by the company Bodyform that shows unspoken truths about vulvas, wombs and periods to push back against tabus and shame it visualizes the emotional complexity of ups and downs like pleasure and pain love and hate of a woman that decides not to have a child of a woman that suffers a misscariage of a woman that gets her first period of a woman that goes through menopause women still suffer because society regrets talking openly about this stories which mental negativly affects their well-being thats why our stories need to be shared to know each other to help each other to see each other

unfortunately the company Bodyform does not only bring positve insights at least not for me it is a company that sells hygiene products that gives me the feeling that my vagina needs extra cleaning because it’s so dirty but it’s not it is beautiful as it is shouldn’t we all love our genitals as they are? do we really need intim shampoo to be ok with our genitals? yes people believe in this they buy more products because they like the video because it’s advertisement is that really fighting shame if it also brings doubts? is this company really supporting women if they just want to sell their products at the end?

Also, why isn’t the quota mandatory for the executive board? Or any other industry? What would happen if this law applies to more companies in Germany? Doesn’t an university also need an equal distribution of female and male professors? It is very important that more women get the chance to be involved in decision-making processes, to spread their opinions and ideas - so more women feel heard and included in society.

Nevertheless I ask myself why this law is called “Law for the equal participation of women and men in management positions in the private and public sectors” if the quota is 30%? Shouldn’t it be 50% then? 30% women means 70% men, this is not equally distributed and women are still the minority.

On the 6th of March 2015 the Lower House of German Parliament introduced the legislation of the Woman’s Quota of 30%. This applies to companies that are listed at the stock exchange (that are approx. 100 companies). It’s a fixed quota that these companies have to fulfill only for the supervisory board (Aufsichtsrat) (graphic 1). If they don’t manage the position has to be left empty. For the execution board (Vorstand) and other manager positions the quota is more like an aspiration (graphic 2). This law can help to abort traditional workingmodels that discriminate women. There is no doubt that political desicions need to be made to fight injustice.

2: Women’s quota in the executive board, 1st and 2nd management level https://www.bmfsfj.de/quote/daten.html#topTab1

1: Distribution of gender in the top 100 German supervisory boards https://www.bmfsfj.de/quote/daten.html#topTab1

It is extremely difficult for female people to work in an invironment that is dominated by man. Power games are not uncommon and thats why some women choose to not be part of boards. Often it is also a problem of combining family and work, women are still the parent that sacrifice career more often in order to create a family. Potentially there are enough smart and hardworking women out there but maybe it’s just not attractive enough for them to work in the boardroom? What can we change to make it attractive? I think there are still many basic things society thas to work on. For example that a powerful women shouldn’t be a threat for men. Leader strategies have to change from top-down to more consensual and from hierarchical to more egalitarian. Women and men should be paid equally. Combining family and career should be more supported through alternative working models...

Unfortunately, traditions in our system are deeply rooted and can’t be abolished just with one law or in this case a quota. What if men still don’t listen to women in boards, don’t take them seriously when they speak up or even cick them out to prevent that they can change something? What if they intentionally select weaker or incompetent women? How can this law help that women are equally treated in the working invironment? Isn’t this quota just a facade or even an illusion for equality?

WOMEN’S QUOTA - fighting for equality

A project by Elizabeth Diller (of Diller Scofidio + Renfro) whereby the efficiency of ironing was ignored and instead, intricate folding and pressing techniques were used to create shirts which could deliberately not be easily stored or packaged.

//journal.01_tildem //

Setting Out a Feminist Approach to some Modes and what Matters in Architecture_ Jane Rendell

Dissident Ironing was first exhibited as Dysfunctionalisme at the Centre dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Art Contemporain des Castres, France in the spring of 1993 and at the Richard Anderson Gallery, New York in the fall of 1993.

Critical Spatial Practices_1990s

Gender Specific Roles 01

21.04.2020

//journal.02_tildem //

1977, performance at the Galleria Communale dâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; Arte Moderna in Bologna

At the opening of an exhibition at the Galleria d'Arte Moderna Bologna Museum in June 1977, Abramovich / Ulay had to stand alone at the other end of the entrance, and the people who walked inside themselves would have to squeeze through the gaps between themselves. It does not avoid dual physical contact. The main thing was that everyone should decide who to look for as they pass. The video focuses on both full-view and half-length portraits to achieve different reactions of the viewer. Most people were looking straight ahead to avoid direct gaze, squeezed with too much physical contact, or trying to blow their bare skin as much as possible. Others remained on the shoulders of the artists. Abramovich / Ulay continued to stare at each other motionless like sculptures next to an entrance.

Marina Abramovic and Ulay have made themselves again and again the topic of performances and actions. Gender specific roles, the opposing models of male and female body are being questioned in public up to its physical and psychic limits. The borderline between art and life seems to be extremely thin, especially considering how often a real danger becomes part of the artistic concept.

Imponderabilia

2010, re-performance at the MoMA

gender specific roles 02

17.05.2020

d o m e s t i c violence

Related links concerning deaths caused by domestic violence Ministry for Family and Social Policies http://www.aile.gov.tr/tr Minister for Family and Social Policies Mrs. Fatma Ĺ&#x17E;ahin http://www.fatmasahin.net/ Statistics concerning domestic violence http://tuikapp.tuik.gov.tr/kadinasiddetdagitim/kadi n.zul Platform for Stopping Homicide of Women http://www.kadincinayetlerinidurduracagiz.net/ Foundation for Purple Roof Shelter http://www.morcati.org.tr/ Kamer Foundation : http://www.kamer.org.tr/

The main page of the Monument Counter is the counter itself. It contains a counter showing the women who have died because of domestic violence and a page that consists of the names of the dead women. This page builds a semi-wall with the names of the dead women who have been killed between 2008-2015 and will be updated daily. The wall will have a separate color for each year and will thus show the difference between years. When one clicks on the name of a woman there will be another page.

The counter masks a rising threat while also reporting about the continuity of violence. The Monument Counter doesâ&#x20AC;? not only demonstrate a worrying increase, a burdensome accumulation but also invites an urgent count down. As the counter counts up, hope vanishes. It disappears one by one

It has been announced that between January and September 2012 that 125 women lost their lives due to domestic violence. The Monument Counter has been therefore conceived as a device to generate public awareness concerning the rising number of deaths due to domestic violence and bring unknown data into light. This website will have the names of dead women and is not only an awareness raising mechanism directed against society concerning domestic violence but also is a monument for the dead women.

The Monument Counter is an on line (internet) monument to commemorate women who lost their lives due to domestic violence. It is also a counter that is updated every day.

//journal.03_tildem //

12.06.2020

_ making assumptions about people based solel on their race, colour, gender, body type etc. _stereotyping people based on their physical appearances try to remember _ we are all human-beings. _our differences are what makes us beautiful.

need to stop

//journal.04_tildem //

https://www.instagram.com/peterdevito/

The photographer and illustrator @peterdevito draws attention to the disparate differences, stereotypes and discriminations in the photos he takes.

// Weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re all human beings. //

07.07.2020

Noor AlMaliki - 20 years, killed by her father in the United states of America.

Amina Said (L), 18, and her sister Sarah, 17, were shot dead by their father Yaser at their home in Irving, Texas, in January 2008. Said was upset by his daughters’ “Western ways” and was assisted in the killing by his wife, the girls’ mother. The victims of honor killings are largely teenage daughters or young women.

17.05.2020

Israa Ghrayeb - 21 years, beaten to death by her brother and father in Palestine.

wHicH

or gIven

the act, whIch In some countrIes the perpetrator can be

ACQUITTED for ATTENUATED EXCUSES to reduce hIs sentence. is by NO meaNs acceptable!!!

wIth or wIthout the consent of the father and/or brother,

ReactiONaRy.

aNd

Hatun Sürücü - 23 years, mother of a child killed by her younger brother in Berlin.

* In thIs sentence alone, how many VIOLATIONS to women´s rIghts are there?! so accordIng to the motIves behInd commIttIng thIs brutal act: woman should obey, CAN´T dress the way the fInd It approprIate, DON´T have the freedom to use theIr bodIes the way they lIke and don´t have the rIght to SAY NO to anythIng theIr famIlIes agree of or fInd suItable for them, weather It Is a marrIage, CULTURAL MORES or SUBJUGATION!!!

An honor killing or shame killing is the MURDER of a member of a family, due to the perpetrators´belief that the victim has brought shame or dishonor upon the family, or has violated the principles of a community or a religion with an honor culture. Typical reasons include divorcing or separating from their spouse, refusing to enter an arranged, child or forced marriage, being in a relationship or having associations with social groups outside the family that is strongly disapproved by one's family, having premarital or extramarital sex, becoming the victim of rape or sexual assault, dressing in clothing, jewelry and accessories which are deemed inappropriate, engaging in non-heterosexual relations or renouncing a faith.

Definition:

HeRe we sit, OuR HaNds tied.

RaNce aNd

SEEN AS AN ACT OF DEFENDING her honor “ honor kIllIng”?? would she be acquItted or TREATED LIKE A MAN In thIs case?? would her crIme be

KilliNg: so, If we dIsregard thIs sImple rIght. we come to thIs

brutal and Inhumane act, whIch can be done by any male famIly member,

second

ty, thIs wOuld cOst tHem tHeiR lives!!!

for them. and If It happens and they had the courage to challenge the socIe-

deprIvIng women of the rIght of usIng theIr body the way they fInd It suItable

giRls aRe victims Of igNO-

she caught her husband cheatIng on her or her brother havIng sex wIth a woman.

tHe sisteR OR tHe daugHteR, migHt eveN be tHe mOm OR

tHe cOusiN OR aNy female family membeR.

HER is

the concept of honor and It beIng exclusIvely related to her and her body.

* problem comprIses here of two factors fIrst the word HONOR:

aNd yet agaiN twO teeNage

* If a woman commIts an honor crIme because

SHAME KILLING PURIFIED BY BLOOD

HONOR KILLING

bOdies aRe

family HONOR.

* women all over the world need to be aware of theIr RIGHTS, of theIr BEING, that they are theIr OWN ENTITIES and above all need TO BE EDUCATED TO BE ABLE to face any kInd of InjustIce that they mIght face.

Alejandro Jodorowsky

* syrIa ratIfIed on the conventIon on the elImInatIon of all forms of dIscrImInatIon agaInst women of 1979, In the year 1979, BUT YET thIs decIsIon comes not untIl 2020 and has been under study for more than 10 years!!! tHat is NOt eNOugH!!!

A poster of the "Talaat" ( we are going out) demonstration in the Halisa neighborhood of Haifa

NOt RepOsitORies Of

* wOmeN´s

how can we

STOP It?? PROTECT those wOmeN, who CAN´T protect themselves??

them.

latIons are beIng made agaInst

and protectIon of mInors, vIo-

ganIsatIons for women rIghts

* “honor” crImes are happenIng ALL OVER THE WORLD even In most developed countrIes, wIth all the efforts made by or-

FINALLY!!!

A draft law to abolish the attenuated excuse for "honor killings" in Syria. 08.03.2020

* although the reason behInd an “honor kIllIng” can be the “unaccepted” sexual orIentatIon of the chIld, sIster/ brother or even cousIns. It Is MORE LIKELY to be practIced AGAINST the LESBIAN DAUGHTER than agaInst the gay son!!!

In a poll with respondents across countries in the Arab world such as Algeria (27%), Morocco (25%), Sudan (14%), Jordan (21%), Tunisia (8%), Lebanon (8%) and the Palestinian territory of the West Bank (8%), it was found that honor killings were more acceptable than homosexuality.

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture/when-did-girls-start-wearing-pink-1370097/

PINK FOR GIRLS, BLUE FOR BOYS!

Accordingly, my question is, why do we have to associate a certain color with a certain gender? Why can´t it be one color for everyone? Following the hospital´s

What does a non-binary person do in this case, do they choose the color of their birth gender and be unsatisfied with it? or are they allowed to introduce a third color? or do they simply get rejected for the position?

Why does a hospital need to differentiate between female and male nurses? Especially in a country like Germany and in the 21st century?

A couple of days ago, I was at the hospital visiting a friend and couldn´t but not notice that the uniform is pink shirts for female nurses and blue shirts for male nurses.

I believe that such a simple convention feeds a person’s subconscious and thus reflects in their behavior and ways of thinking in later stages of life and would lead to the reinforcement of gender discrimination.

It is a convention that has been used since the 19th century especially for newborns, and nowadays it is ubiquitous.

logo color, for example, or a neutral color! Is there such a thing - a neutral color-, after all these years of associating pink for girls and blue for boys?

It is not pink it is faded salmon ! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIno4H4LRVE

In this scene the woman offers the man a shirt to change his stained shirt and he replies, that he is not sure he wants to wear a woman´s shirt. He assumed that it is a woman´s shirt just because it is pink.

As pink is considered a feminine color, so many men are ashamed to wear it, or if they do, they get mocked by their friends. Here we find that when men do something that is in any way related to women, it is degradation for them, which means that women are in a lower rank than men. And that, in my opinion, is unacceptable.

What about the female american architects descending from different backgrounds, do they stand a chance reaching this position? 01

Why is the percentage still less than 50%? Why is it not equally distributed between the different genders? Why is this the case also at the Technical university of Berlin?

How many men have had her position? And how many women at the same university has the same position?

Why do women feel the urge to always prove themselves and a small mistake would cost them much more than men? All those obstacles, what for? just because she is a WOMAN! It is always harder for women performing their jobs, as the challenge is doubled ... the work itself and them as women doing it.

Designing for Diversity September 27, 2019 - This is a part of an interview by Rachel Serfling with Kathryn H. Anthony, a professor at the School of Architecture at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. [https://www.nowwhat-architexx.org/articles/designingfordiversity]

For many of my students, especially in the early years, I was their only female architecture professor or sometimes one of their only female professors at the University. That’s a heavy responsibility. Like it or not, the more underrepresented you are, whether it be your gender, your race or ethnicity, or your sexual orientation, or even your size or your shape, the more you are seen as an ambassador for your entire demographic.

When I first arrived to teach at the University of Illinois, I was the only female faculty member out of a total of about sixty architecture faculty. Later there were two of us, then three of us... Now there are more. It took a long time to achieve a critical mass of women faculty, and we’re not even there yet.

I forged my own professional network and made friends with many male colleagues over the years, both at my own campus and elsewhere. I’ve always had to have a network of men, primarily, because early on not too many women were out there. I’m grateful for the networks I now have, both male and female.

It’s possible that as a male I might have had an easier time finding publishers for my books or perhaps being nominated for and winning more professional awards.

I love that question! It was the first question in my book Designing for Diversity: “What if Frank Lloyd Wright had been a woman—Frances Lloyd Wright?” Assuming I had the same career as an architectural educator… how might it have been any different? If my name was Anthony Kathryn rather than Kathryn Anthony, perhaps I might have benefited from an old boys’ network that would have quickly pulled me aside as a candidate for advancement into a higher level administrative career. But would that have been an avenue that I would have wanted to pursue? Hard to say. In fact, I have held significant administrative positions in the School of Architecture, the first woman to serve as Chair of the Building Research Council, and the first woman to serve as Chair of the Design Program faculty, as well as chairing some high-level committees at the university. But I was always content to return to my faculty position.

To repeat a question asked in your research, “How, if at all, do you think your career would have been different if you were a member of the opposite sex?”

My own experiences, along with those of colleagues facing similar unjust situations, sparked questions that formed the impetus of much of my research. I wanted to raise these issues in the public arena so that they were no longer buried under the rug—allowing architects to speak freely under the cloak of anonymity.

As a full professor for over twenty years, I never take it for granted. I know how hard it was to achieve. Overall my experience as a female faculty member at an architecture school has been positive. Nonetheless, at times I had a somewhat rocky road early on when I know I was not treated fairly. Fortunately, most universities have safeguards in place that you can turn to if you are experiencing discrimination of any kind. Many employees in the architecture profession don’t have that, especially those who work in smaller firms.

I just completed my thirty-fifth year at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

What has your experience been as a female faculty member in an architecture school?

WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE -PART 01

Why is it, that we only know few names of women architects while we now hundreds of men architects? What does that mean for women architects from different backgrounds (African, Latin, Arab...Etc)? How hard does it have to be for a woman to prove her competence?

Great Contributions yet little recognition! Why would women be interested in doing something that doesn´t give them back the minimum they deserve?

And unfortunately, it is always hard to prove the reason behind the rejection! Some companies would hire men of color but when it comes to hiring women of color it is not desirable!

That happened in the 90s and is still happening in the 00s and some people are still getting away with it!

If we look across the profession today, so many talented women architects have had remarkable achievements. Two that immediately come to mind are Carol Ross Barney and Jeanne Gang, both University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign alumnae who have received some of the highest-profile architectural commissions ever awarded to women. Yet if you were to pull aside a group of students and ask, “How many women architects can you name, both past and present? And what are some of their most notable achievements?”, could they do it? And what if you repeated these questions concerning African American or Latino architects? I still believe many students would have a hard time. So yes, the situation for underrepresented architects has definitely improved over the years. But we’ve still got a long way to go.

One of my goals for Designing for Diversity was to highlight cases where underrepresented architects, especially women and people of color, made historic contributions to the field.

No doubt that during the intervening period, especially given the discourse surrounding the Me Too movement, public awareness of these issues is far greater than ever before.

The October 1991 Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas hearing occurred during one of the first offerings of my gender and race in contemporary architecture course that I have been teaching for almost thirty years. Coincidentally, Dr. Blasey Ford delivered her 2018 Congressional testimony during that same class last fall semester. We stopped our seminar to watch it live, and I gave my students an assignment to analyze the role of the physical environment in her account of what transpired. It was a fascinating experience.

Despite being published in 2001, themes in the book are still very relevant. You already brought up the pay gap, which still persists, but your book also twice mentions the Anita Hill and Clarence Thomas hearing in 1991, echoing Brett Kavanaugh and Christine Blasey Ford today. There was also a general rise in awareness of sexual harassment in the 1990s, mirroring the Me Too movement. Despite these parallels, do you feel that women have made progress in the profession?

I documented stories of African American architects applying for jobs that looked promising, and for which they knew they were well qualified. Yet when they appeared for their interview, it lasted for only a few minutes. And then they were out the door. Some other architects with foreign-sounding names had a hard time breaking through the interview process. Learning about these experiences was really shocking. We were not talking about prehistory. Stories like these were happening still in the 1980s and 1990s.

My research findings about gender pay inequity shocked me. I wasn’t too surprised to find that men were earning more than women, but I was disturbed to document that the longer women architects had been in the field, the larger the pay gap. Ironically, women were penalized financially for sticking it out in the field. And that just didn’t make sense to me.

I was surprised that so many atrocities were still occurring even in the 1990s and that people were getting away with it. I came across some particularly outrageous examples of racial and gender discrimination as well as sexual harassment. Yet I was also struck by the tenacity, patience, and perseverance of so many underrepresented architects whom I interviewed and surveyed.

Were you surprised by any of the results you found in your research for Designing for Diversity or did the data match your expectations?

WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE -PART 01

Ricardo Legorreta, Hon. FAIA 1999 Frank Gehry, FAIA 1997 Richard Meier, FAIA 1995 César Pelli, FAIA 1994 Sir Norman Foster, Hon. FAIA 1993 Thomas Jefferson* 1993 Kevin Roche, FAIA 1992 Benjamin Thompson, FAIA 1991 Charles W. Moore, FAIA 1990 E. Fay Jones, FAIA 1989 Joseph Esherick, FAIA 1986 Arthur Erickson, Hon. FAIA 1985 William Wayne Caudill, FAIA* 1983 Nathaniel A. Owings, FAIA 1982 Romaldo Giurgola, FAIA 1981 Josep Luis Sert, FAIA 1979 Ieoh Ming Pei, FAIA 1978 Philip Cortelyou Johnson, FAIA 1977 Richard Joseph Neutra, FAIA* 1972 Pietro Belluschi, FAIA 1971 Louis I. Kahn, FAIA

2000

In the time span of 113 years only two women out of 113 architects succeeded in winning the AIA Gold Medal, one of whom received the medal 63 years after her death. Beyond that and not to be surprised, Paul Revere Williams is the first black winner! How many more centuries should women wait till they get justice! This is the case in the developed countries, how does the situation look like in the less developed ones!

2016

Robert Venturi, FAIA and Denise Scott Brown, Hon. FAIA 2015 Moshe Safdie, FAIA 2014 Julia Morgan, FAIA* 2013 Thom Mayne, FAIA 2012 Steven Holl, FAIA 2011 Fumihiko Maki, Hon. FAIA 2010 Peter Q. Bohlin, FAIA 2009 Glenn Marcus Murcutt, Hon. FAIA 2008 Renzo Piano, Hon. FAIA 2007 Edward Larrabee Barnes, FAIA* 2006 Antoine Predock, FAIA 2005 Santiago Calatrava, FAIA 2004 Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee, FAIA* 2002 Tadao Ando, Hon. FAIA 2001 Michael Graves, FAIA

2017 Paul Revere Williams, FAIA*

2020

Marlon Blackwell, FAIA 2019 Lord Richard Rogers, Hon. FAIA 2018 James Stewart Polshek, FAIA

PRESTIGIOUS ARCHITECTURAL AWARDS AIA GOLD MEDAL LAUREATES:

WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE -PART 02

* honored posthumously

Paul Revere Williams

Maybeck 1950 Sir Patrick Abercrombie, Hon. FAIA 1949 Frank Lloyd Wright 1948 Charles Donagh Maginnis, FAIA 1947 Eliel Saarinen, FAIA 1944 Louis Henri Sullivan, FAIA 1938 Paul Philippe Cret, FAIA 1933 Ragnar Ostberg, Hon. FAIA 1929 Milton Bennett Medary, FAIA 1927 Howard Van Doren Shaw, FAIA 1925 Sir Edwin Landseer Lutyens, Hon. FAIA 1925 Bertram Grosvenor Goodhue, FAIA* 1923 Henry Bacon, FAIA 1922 Victor Laloux, Hon. FAIA 1914 Jean Louis Pascal, Hon. FAIA 1911 George Browne Post, FAIA 1909 Charles Follen McKim, FAIA 1907 Sir Aston Webb, Hon. FAIA

Denise Scott Brown 1951 Bernard Ralph

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julia_Morgan#/media/File:Julia_Morgan.jpg https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Denise_Scott_Brown#/media/File:Denise_Scott_Brown.jpg https://www.aia.org/showcases/23066-paul-revere-williams-faia https://www.aia.org/awards/7046-gold-medal

Why are women underrepresented? Although there are many women architects whose work is worthy of recognition. What are the factors that prevent women from climbing the career ladder? These are deep-rooted systematic problems that must be solved!

Julia Morgan

Richard Buckminster Fuller,FAIA 1969 William Wilson Wurster, FAIA 1968 Marcel Breuer, FAIA 1967 Wallace K. Harrison, FAIA 1966 Kenzo Tange, Hon. FAIA 1964 Pier Luigi Nervi, Hon. FAIA 1963 Alvar Aalto, Hon. FAIA 1962 Eero Saarinen, FAIA* 1961 Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret-Gris, Hon. FAIA) 1960 Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, FAIA 1959 Walter Gropius, FAIA 1958 John Wellborn Root, FAIA 1957 Ralph Walker, FAIA (Centennial Medal of Honor) 1957 Louis Skidmore, FAIA 1956 Clarence S. Stein, FAIA 1955 William Marinus Dudok, Hon. FAIA 1953 William Adams Delano, FAIA 1952 Auguste Perret, Hon. FAIA 1970

https://www.architecture.com/-/media/files/Awards/Past-winners/Royal-Gold-Medal-winners-1980-to-present.pdf?la=en https://www.dezeen.com/2019/02/15/alternative-royal-gold-medal-riba-women-part-w/ https://www.part-w.com/

architects. Women architects receive so much less publicity than their male colleagues that we would have to search harder to learn about their work, their names and their contributions to the field of architecture.

2006

Lady Patricia Hopkins

Part W is an action group of women working across architecture and design, infrastructure and construction and campaigning for gender parity across the built environment.

(2019)

Toyo Ito, Japan 1991 Sir Colin Stansfield Smith, UK 2005 Frei Otto, Germany 1990 Aldo van Eyck, The Netherlands 2004 Rem Koolhaas, Netherlands 1989 Renzo Piano, Italy 2003 Rafael Moneo, Spain 1988 Richard Meier, USA 2002 Archigram, UK 1987 Ralph Erskine, UK 2001 Jean Nouvel, France 1986 Arata Isozaki, Japan 2000 Frank Gehry, USA 1985 Sir Richard Rogers, UK 1999 City of Barcelona 1984 Charles Correa, India 1998 Oscar Niemeyer, Brazil 1983 Sir Norman Foster, UK 1997 Tadao Ando, Japan 1982 Berthold Lubetkin, Russia 1996 Harry Seidler, Australia 1981 Sir Philip Dowson, UK 1995 Colin Rowe, UK 1980 Sir James Stirling, UK 1994 Sir Michael and Lady Patricia Hopkins, UK 1993 Giancarlo De Carlo, Italy 1992 Peter Rice, Ireland Part W invites architects This is only a glimpse into the world of architectural awards, and by to create alternative observing them we can see that fame and recognition gained by winning these all-female Royal Gold noble prizes is the reason why many of us know many more male than female Medal winners list.

Ireland 2019 Sir Nicholas Grimshaw, UK 2018 Neave Brown, UK 2017 Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Brazil 2016 Dame Zaha Hadid, UK 2015 Sheila O’Donnell and John Tuomey, Ireland 2014 Joseph Rykwert, UK 2013 Peter Zumthor, Switzerland 2012 Herman Hertzberger, Netherlands 2011 Sir David Chipperfield, UK 2010 I.M. Pei, China/USA 2009 Álvaro Siza Vieira, Portugal 2008 Edward Cullinan, UK 2007 Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron, Switzerland

2020 Grafton Architects,

the same situation as the AIA Gold Medal, it wasn´t until 2016 -after 168 years of establsihing the award- that Zaha Hadid won this award to become the first single woman to win it. In addition, there were three other female-male partnerships.

PRESTIGIOUS ARCHITECTURAL AWARDS RIBA GOLD MEDAL LAUREATES 1980-2020:

WOMEN IN ARCHITECTURE -PART 02

Zaha Hadid

Yvonne Farrell and Shelley McNamara

Sheila O´Donnelll