Ginger by Ginger

Ginger Networked feminism

Summer 2015

Editors’ LETTER A rhizome, as theorized by Deleuze and Guattari, is “an acentered, nonhierarchical, nonsignifying system without a General and without an organizing memory or central automaton, defined solely by a circulation of states.” Ginger is a type of plant called a rhizome, which does not grow from a central point or in a particular direction. A single piece of ginger can give rise to a whole new plant. Friendships and social groups grow the same way— acentered and nonhierarchical, in varied directions and from various points. This zine aims to expose and create connections between women through showcasing the creative pursuits of those we know and respect. This issue specifically presents the work of our friends. Each contributor has been asked to invite a female creator they know and respect to contribute to the next issue of the zine. Thank you to all of our friends who understood our mission and agreed to contribute and become a part of this rhizome. Without you, this issue and future issues would not be possible.

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Issue NO 1 contributors Jessica Law .... Page 07 LA Johnson .... Page 12 Alex Chowaniec .... Page 14 Caitlin Wright .... Page 16 Fredrika Thelandersson .... Page 18 Katie Vida .... Page 20 Leigh Ruple .... Page 23 Lauren Arian .... Page 28 Jessica Prusa .... Page 30 Jillian Jacobs .... Page 32 Claudia Gerbracht .... Page 35 Laura McMullen .... Page 36 Carla Avruch .... Page 40 Mimi Chiahemen .... Page 44

Co-founders E d i tor

Markee Speyer Desi gner

Jacqueline Cantu

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Summer 2015

Jessica Law

Books are not flammable—it’s the wooden shelves: Emily Jacir, Susan Buck-Morss and The Gift of the Past 80% of the books were destroyed 60-80 bombs hit the main building Not one bomb hit the tower. These few lines from artist Emily Jacir’s diary accompany a photograph of a damaged interior of a book (Fig. 1) that belonged to the nearly obliterated archive of the Landgraves of Hesse-Kassel. The series of photographs, which utilizes both found and personal images in and around Kassel, Germany, is part of a notebook that combines Jacir’s project with the response, “The Gift of the Past,” by philosopher Susan Buck-Morss. Jacir’s photographs range from books to ballrooms to windows. Considering the empty spaces and decay of buildings, the viewer can infer as to which photographs the artist captured herself and which are found images montaged into her archive. The presentation of the images is by no means a straightforward narrative. Rather, Jacir’s handwritten bullet points focus on site-specific observations and historical information pertaining to each location. And although the notebook was collaboratively written, the remaining pages do not function as a conversation between artist and writer. As opposed to

[FIGURE 1]

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[FIGURE 2]

responding directly to the Jacir’s images, Buck-Morss revisits Walter Benjamin’s contemplation of Paul Klee’s Angelus Novus as a method to address the production of collective memory and history.1 Addressing the complex layers between the two projects is no easy task. Buck-Morss states that, in regard to history, “the layers are not neatly stacked.”2 Within the notebook the multiple layers collapse onto the pages as a means to create a dialogue between them. On the one hand, we have Jacir’s research and on the other, Buck-Morss’ reflection of Benjamin. But this convoluted project, this dialogue, is not limited to the pages. For Jacir, the reference to archives and repressive histories only begins with the images and notes published in the notebook No.004. In conjunction with the publication, Jacir contributed to dOCUMENTA (13) by exhibiting ex libris (Fig. 2 & detail), a project addressing an archive of the looting of thirty thousand books from Palestinian homes, libraries and institutions by Israeli authorities in 1948. Six thousand of these books

[detail]

remain catalogued in the Jewish National Library in West Jerusalem under the acronym A.P., short for abandoned property. The photographs, defiantly captured with the artist’s cellphone over the course of several visits to the National Library, focus on inscriptions and traces such as stains, marginalia, scribbles, notes, that fall under the designator A.P. Cropped and removed from their current context, Jacir’s photographs depict an image of a buried Palestine within the systematic order of Israeli national identity. Windows designed not to open all the way Captured from the inside of a room, a tall open window overlooks a rural landscape with small stone houses (Fig. 2). The images that follow depict a monastery turned Nazi war camp turned girls’ reformatory school just twenty kilometers south of Kassel in Breitenau. In her notes on the site, Jacir writes how Breitenau is layered with a repressive history. Originally constructed as a Benedictine monastery in the 12th

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century, it later contained prison cells for those involved in the sixteenth century peasant rebellion and was turned into a workhouse and correctional facility in 1874. In 1933, under the Nazi regime, the structure was converted into a labor camp housing hundreds of accused communists and socialists. In the decade that followed, the Kassel Gestapo added an additional camp to the workhouse and Breitenau was used for the temporary collection of Jews being transferred to surrounding concentrations camps. After the war, Breitenau remained a prison for homeless youth, troubled girls, and those with sexual transmitted diseases. By the late 1960s, the institution shifted its main focus on the “rehabilitation” of troubled girls and was subject to heavy public criticism, most notably led by journalist Ulrike Meinhof whose exposés revealed the poor treatment of women, calling attention to a number of similar institutions as well as Breitenau. Jacir also notes this connection to Meinhof’s research and her 1970 film, Bambule. Fürsorge—Sorge für wen? Although originally set to air on May 24, 1970, the film

was cancelled due to Meinhof’s involvement in Andreas Baader’s prison escape ten days prior and her subsequent co-founding of the Red Army Faction (RAF). Breitenau as a home for young girls was shut down in 1973, and is now a rehabilitation and treatment facility for the mentally ill.3 Doors lock from the outside …The last line written on the page regarding Breitenau (Fig.3). Next to the notation are two images, one of several young women gathered and working at a table and another of a row of communal showers. Both images depict a history of confinement within the walls of the institution. In Madness and Civilization, Michel Foucault demonstrates how communal engagement was “part of a system whose essential element was the constitution of ‘self-restraint’ in which the patient’s freedom, engaged by work and the observation of others, was ceaselessly threatened by the recognition of guilt.”4 Although Foucault is addressing the birth of the asylum in the nineteenth-century, the idea of self-restraint established through a system of order and classification still applies. As shown, the young women in the institution are not constrained physically, but rather confined through observation and enforced communal labor. Foucault also writes how this absence of constraint allows for disobedience to be mastered by those who watch over the organized commu-

nity.5 In other words, control is achieved by the internalized notion that you are being watched. Similarly, Jacir’s lens allows the reader of the notebook to inhabit such a space and in turn brings this constraint to the surface. The first photograph of the women gathered around a table obscures the identities of these women by censoring their eyes with a black bar. If we look closer at the photograph we can see a reflection on the surface, which signifies it is a photograph of another photograph. This image is paired with a photograph of communal showers taken by Jacir. The juxtaposition of a photograph of a photograph capturing the past and a recent photograph of structural remains, exemplifies the layers of history noted on the adjacent page. But it is precisely this unbridgeable gap of knowledge between what is written and what is depicted that represents the repressive history of Breitenau.

tion was drawn to the remains of books that were damaged during the 1941 bombing of the Fridericianum. According to the information Jacir received, sixty to eighty bombs hit the main building and none hit the tower. The last three images become a stand-in for this event with one photograph depicting a large quantity of books stacked against walls, a second depicting books piled inside rows of bunk beds and the third depicting the damaged interior pages of a manuscript. After the 1941 bombings only the enclosing walls and the Zwehrenturm tower re-

Books are not flammable –it’s the wooden shelves Jacir’s final images in notebook No. 004 resulted from research at the Murhard library in Kassel (Fig. 4). During the visit her atten-

[FIGURE 3]

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[FIGURE 4]

mained. The manuscripts located in the tower, the Zwehrenturm, survived.6 History breaks down into images, not into stories. —Walter Benjamin The remaining pages of the notebook contain Buck-Morss’ response that does not directly comment on the imagery presented by Jacir, but instead begins with the a list of three proclamations (Fig. 5). Buck-Morss cites a quotation from Walter Benjamin on the adjacent page, while Benjamin’s influence itself resonates throughout the text. Fragments of history themselves do not take narrative form. Storehouses of the past rearrange fragments to write history while simultaneously producing the past. Buck-Morss writes that “orthodoxy is in constant danger of being undermined by the knowledge process itself. Storehouses of the past harbor evidence of errors, ambiguities, and complexities (not to speak of outright lies) that discredit official belief and threaten to topple collective legends.”7 The establishment of an archive

creates an imagined national community. Its destruction takes on ethnic and racial tones as indicated in Jacir’s project. BuckMorss expresses such a claim under the fragment “Ephemeral Archives” when she lists the recent casualties that include The Irish National Archives and The National Museum and Library

of Iraq in Baghdad, which was destroyed in the US Invasion of Iraq in 2003.8 This form of erasure, however, is more complex in that it simultaneously preserves as it destroys. The fragments of the destroyed archive are appropriated into the collective imagination of another community. Buck-Morss refers to archaeologists who “dig quickly through layers of history to find what is of interest to present power. Attention to mythic origin—the stuff of national legend that shores up the dominance of those who rule—dismissed the recent past as refuse. Its ground is a mere construction site for future growth.”9 This is articulated in Jacir’s project by the depiction of Breitenau and the Fridericianum.

[FIGURE 5]

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In the case of the former monastery, history was removed from the official record as a means to control Breitenau’s perception. And as for the bombarded library, its destruction was apart of the Nazi preservation and production of their imagined future. Archival processes, historical narrative, and the survival of objects can all be traced within Jacir’s extensive project. At the beginning of notebook No.004, Jacir not only notes the catastrophe of the 1939 bombing of the Fridericianum but also at the bottom of the page writes, continuous destruction of Palestinian archives. Beneath an image of stack books and written descriptions of the bombing, Jacir brings her own present into the past. Here, the WWII bombing is in parallel with the on going occupation. The appropriation of Palestinian land, the Israeli ownership of the Abandoned Property is a continual form of erasure, the same erasure a manuscript faces when a bomb hits the building. And by exhibiting ex libris, the confiscated Palestinian archive, in the Zwehreturm, the surviving tower, Jacir further draws this connection.

[FIGURE 5]

Buck-Morss concludes, “blasted free of official memory, the fragments of history are preserved in images. They retain the nearness of original experience, and with it, ambiguity. Their meaning is released only in a constellation with the present.”10 Benjamin wrote of blasting the past out of the continuum of history. In comparison, Buck-Morss

writes, “Past events cannot provide a key to the present unless they are radically separated from the direct lineage of inheritance.” The last pages of the notebook leave us with these questions: What if you cannot read what is written by the image? Whom will you trust to tell you what it says?

Emily Jacir and Susan Buck-Morss, 100 Notes, 100 Thoughts: Documenta Series 004 (100 Notes, 100 Thoughts: Documenta Series (13)) (Ostfildern, Germany: Hatje Cantz, 2011). 2 Ibid, 27. 3 Ibid, 26. 4 Michel Foucault, Madness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, trans. Richard Howard (New York: Random House, 1965), 252-253. 5 Ibid. 6 “Fridericianum,” http://www.fridericianum.org/about/fridericianum (accessed April 1, 2014). 7 Ibid, 35-36. 8 Emily Jacir and Susan Buck-Morss. “No. 004,” 38-40. 9 Ibid, 39. 10 Ibid, 43. 11 Ibid.

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LA Johnson Bitches Brew (2015)

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L A J o h n s o n 13

Alex Chowaniec A Good Death / A Kind Kill (2015)

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A l e x C h o w a n i e c 15

Caitlin Wright not at home. landscapes. (2014)

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C a i t l i n W r i g h t 17

Fredrika Thelandersson Materials toward a theory of the sad girl 1

In love the sad girl is always on the yearning side, knowing that her love is unrequited but enjoying it. The sad girl wants to always be the favorite and isn’t afraid to ask for it “Tell me something like, I’m your favorite girl” The sad girl fucks her way up to the top and isn’t ashamed of it (it means she won what little there was to get) Lana sings, “this is what makes us girls, we don’t stick together and we put love first” which might be read as an anti-feminist anthem but is just an acknowledgement of female jealousy, not necessarily an embracement of it.

And when he calls He calls for me and not for you The sad girl finds pleasure in abandoning herself to love“He hit me and it felt like a kiss” Don’t say you need me when You leave and you leave again. I’m stronger than all my men, Except for you. The sad girl is addicted to an impossible relationship. She carries an “unhealthy” attachment to impossibility I’ll wait for you, babe, It’s all I do, babe, Don’t come through, babe, You never do. The sad girl is pretty when she cries and she knows it, she aspires to the pretty-when-crying look. The sad girl is sick of/bored with “healthy” relationships and man-children who claim to be “good guys” but still carry unacknowledged histories of misogyny with them that they seem to always conveniently ignore. The sad girl is the “liberated” woman who “should know better” than to get into an emotionally abusive relationship The sad girl refuses to condem 50 shades of grey as evil based on superficial feminist ideas, and she finds an appeal in the emotional and physical masochistic elements of the franchise. the sad girl is selfishly sad the sad girl reblogs images of xanax, prozac, vicodin the sad girl reblogs sad-looking pictures superimposed with lana del rey quotes 18

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the sad girl is into a grunge aesthetic the sad girl reblogs pics of pills and cigarettes and booze the sad girl likes ldr and marina and the diamonds she is super super super suicidal (marina and the diamonds “teen idle”) all she ever wanted was the world (marina and the diamonds “primadonna”) The sad girl calls out the man-child on his passive warfare, she calls him out on never texting back She’s in a constant state of longing for the one who never shows up, never responds. It’s as if she’s given herself up to waiting, she knows that he will never come, yet she stays “If I get a little prettier can I be your baby?” She is the princess who’s sick of being ignored, so she pouts The sad girl self-identifies as sad. In her world being sad is a good thing.

She wants to be the girl with the most cake The sad girl is all about image macros and elaborated tumblrs with glitter-animated backgrounds and carefully curated collections of posts2 She loves Courtney Love and Kurt Cobain, but mostly Courtney because the sad girl is the antithesis to all those dudes who believes she killed him. The sad girl sees the beauty in a mess like Courtney. Sad Girls y Qué made the sad girl into a political concept and has proven the potential of sad girl as a feminist project that counteracts the narrow parameters of “white feminism”3 Sad Girls y Qué outs Drake as a sad girl, proving that she is not just a girl-thing but an everyone-thing.

If the sad girl is the new young-girl I want to write about her in the same style as Tiqqun does about the young-girl, but with less subtle sexism. Criticism of Tiqqun highly inspired by Moira Weigel and Mal Ahren’s “Further Materials Toward a Theory of the Man-Child” (http://thenewinquiry. com/essays/further-materials-toward-a-theory-of-the-man-child/) 2 See for example http://transparentbullet.tumblr.com/; http://hollywood-noir.tumblr.com/; and http://grvnge-nicotine.tumblr.com/ 3 https://www.facebook.com/sadgirlsyque; http://www.vice.com/read/sad-girls-y-que-is-breaking-down-machismo-and-offering-an-alternative-towhite-feminism-456 s

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Katie Vida How to Speak the Same Language (1:16 minutes)

Currently in post-production, Commuter Album was created during my daily commute from Brooklyn to Stamford, CT between 2014-2015. Using the car as a workspace I recorded over 50 hours of material on my phone for a little over nine months. The project is being released in July 2015.

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K a t i e V i d a 21

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Leigh Ruple Interview by Markee Speyer

Your mastery of color in your paintings is apparent. How did you learn to think about color? I first learned how to paint with watercolor in high school. My teacher was a local water colorist who gave lessons plein air. He considered early morning light the best condition for seeing color. When I couldn’t finish a painting in one sitting, I took notes about the colors I was seeing on that particular day, so that I could finish the painting later. Making the color wheel was a way to practice mixing secondary and tertiary colors. I first experienced the strengths and weaknesses of different pigments through mixing colors. You are originally from Northeast Ohio, but have not lived there since high school. Yet your work has a Midwestern sensibility about it. Somehow, your figures are very Midwestern, as are the settings that you place them in, despite the abstraction of the painting. How do you feel that the Midwest, or Ohio, influences your work? The artists I knew growing up could draw really well. My father was a draftsman who drew plans for the projects he was working on as an excavator. My watercolor instructor was also an excellent drawer who trained as an illustrator. Both my father and my watercolor instructor made drawings of Lake Erie and the industrial landscape that dotted the local horizon. My favorite thing to draw was people. I drew my family and friends, and I took life drawing classes. When it

came to contemporary art, my watercolor instructor introduced me to the paintings of Richard Lindner. My father had friends in Chicago so he knew a lot about the Imagists. I remember him introducing me to the paintings of Ed Paschke. I think the colorfully stylized figures in my paintings were influenced by these heavily designed representations of the human body. Reproducing paintings in print changes the scale of your work— these paintings are very large, 5 or 6 feet in each direction. When you look at Jaywalking in person, the figure towers over you in a way it doesn’t in print. How do you prepare for large canvases? How did you come to the decision to work on a large scale? Would you like to work even larger? I develop the composition for large canvases with color pencil on paper. The composition is only a starting point for making sure that I have enough space to include everything I want in the image. Because my process includes editing and layering color, working large requires a great deal of physical endurance. I repaint the forms in my paintings several times, until I capture the effect I am trying to achieve. Color is layered and moved around the forms until its interactions activate the entire image. I continue to be excited about the physical commitment my large paintings require because my body is completely involved in the decision making process. Although lately I have been

thinking about working smaller. I also want to make paintings in the two to three foot range. From the paintings I have seen, you have almost always had a figure in the the painting, but now the landscape is becoming more and more prominent, such as Broken Down. They are coming to have equal importance—in Flower Bed, the figure is enmeshed in the landscape. How do you see the relationship between the figure and the landscape (the ground) in your work? I place the figures into a landscape so that they are positioned in space. The palette in each painting ultimately becomes a light source that connects the figure to their environment. The figure is usually the form that I spend the most time developing in each painting. Yet it is the ground that can dramatically expand the field for a figure. Lately I think space has become the subject in my paintings because of the way I am spending time situating a figure in the ground. Are there any particular artists whose work or life you have been inspired by lately? Last spring I saw the Thomas Hart Benton ‘America Today’ mural at the Met. I was really inspired by the multiplicity of figures in each section of the mural. The individual figures each had a lot of specificity. The people in his murals all have this bulbous musculature that made me very excited about painting the human form.

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Listless, Idle (2014)

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Flower Bed (2014)

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Jaywalking (2015)

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Broken Down (2014)

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Lauren Arian STD Identity Crisis

Getting to know and understand yourself is an intimate process, and nothing understands intimacy quite like the microorganisms responsible for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). So which STD are you most like? Take the STD Identity Crisis quiz to find out. 1. What is your ideal occupation? a. Politician b. Elementary School Teacher c. Private Investigator d. Actor e. Marketing Executive 2. What is your body type? a. Apple b. Pear c. Asymmetrically curvy d. Tall and thin e. Hourglass

3. What do you like to do in your free time? a. Low-risk activities such as reading books but every once and awhile I really like to try highrisk activities like skydiving b. Browse Pinterest while sipping on pumpkin spice lattes c. Sneak up on people d. Go to therapy e. As an extrovert, I enjoy anything that gets me out there to meet people 4. What is your favorite movie? a. Non-Stop b. Mean Girls c. While You Were Sleeping d. One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest e. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days

5. What is your home like? a. Very accommodating —a welcoming space to all visitors b. Furnished entirely by Ikea and Target c. Occasionally messy but overall wellmaintained d. Disorganized e. Dark and warm 6. What best describes your behavior at a party? a. I don’t always show up, but when I do I like to stay for awhile b. I’m relatively quiet and come and go quickly c. I like to gather in small groups d. I like to make a scene e. I’m very popular and like to talk to anyone who is willing to listen

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7. What is your favorite color? a. Gray b. Purple c. Yellow d. Pink e. Blue 8. What best describes your ideal romantic relationship? a. I tend to go with the flow and adapt to each person I’m with b. I prefer easy, laidback relationships that don’t challenge me too much c. Antagonistic—I really enjoy getting on my partner’s nerves d. Unpredictable and exciting, going through many stages e. I don’t like to be tied down

Mostly A’s Human Papillomavirus (HPV) You’re a popular and complex one, HPV. A majority of sexually active individuals will come in contact with HPV at some point in their lives. You’re always changing and prefer to mix things up a bit. Keep an eye on yourself though; you have a tendency to get a little too wild sometimes.

Mostly B’s Trichomaniasis (Trich) You’re as basic as this bacterial infection. Trichmoniasis, often shortened to Trich, is one of the most common STDs, even though many people haven’t heard of it. You enjoy your simplicity and wouldn’t have it any other way.

Mostly C’s Herpes

Mostly D’s Syphilis

Mostly E’s Gonorrhea

You’re Herpes! You’re often quiet and shy, but when you make your presence known, you’re the center of attention. Herpes is most common on the mouth or genitals, but can also occur on other parts of the body, and its breakouts vary greatly in severity. As a virus, you like to hang out in the nervous system, sometimes living in people’s bodies for a long time before they have any symptoms. Then again, you might hide out forever, never inflicting your symptoms on your host.

The STD of creative types, you are the misunderstood and enigmatic Syphilis. You have earned the nickname, “The Great Imitator.” You are a bacterial infection and cause few complications if you are caught in the act and treated early. However, if you’re left untreated, you can potentially lead your victims to very serious late stage symptoms that include paralysis, blindness, and dementia.

You are a popular socialite, Gonorrhea. A very common STD, you, Gonorrhea, are a bacterial infection that can present with or without symptoms. Gonorrhea rates are highest in 15-24 year olds. Luckily for your social circles, you can be treated and cured with antibiotics (but your cousin Super Gonorrhea might pick up where you left off!). You’re anxious to get out there and mingle, but watch out for stranger danger.

STDs impact enormous numbers of people regardless of their age, race, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic class, etc. They can be viral or bacterial, and while all cannot be cured, they all can be prevented. Condoms, conversations, and getting tested all help to reduce the risk of infection if you decide to engage in sexual activity.

Lauren Arian is a sexual health educator who works primarily with youth in systems of care in Denver, Colorado. She is passionate about educating and empowering young people, especially young women, about their bodies and voices. She is fueled by Jenny Lewis, exploring new places, and regular visits to the ocean.

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Jessica Prusa

Free Will Fantasy (2015)

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Dinosaur (2015)

Last Hope to Last (2015)

J e s s i c a P r u s a 31

Jillian Jacobs Based on a True Story

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J i l l i a n J a c o b s 33

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Claudia Gerbracht Untitled (flowers) 2015

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Laura McMullen How to find a gyno

Want your annual ACA-covered “Well Woman Exam”? (We’re talking breast exams, cancer screenings, evaluations, counseling, etc.) A general gyno, women’s health specialist and some nurse practitioners can handle that. Have a specific concern? Have that general gyno refer you to a specialist. Think you’ll want to get preggo in the next five-ish years(!), try to get in with an OBGYN.

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Search websites such as Vitals and Healthgrades, which typically show credentials, specialties, experience and patient reviews of health care providers. Sometimes you can even see information about malpractice and sanctions.

Word of mouth is also helpful. Get recommendations by hitting up girlfriends and family members.

Once you find a gynecologist, donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be afraid to ditch him or her if youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re not feeling it. If you get the sense this person is uninterested, rushing though your appointments or judging you, then he or she isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t good enough for you. Start searching again.

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How To Make The Most Of Gynecologist Appointments, Particularly When They Make You So Anxious You Want To Die

[FIGURE 1]

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Take a look at yourself down there, girl. First, search online for diagrams of vulvas and vaginas. Then, use a hand mirror to look at your own. (You could squat over the mirror or, using pillows, prop yourself in front of it on your bed.) [FIGURE 1] Identify the parts of your vulva. This exercise is helpful for a few reasons: you can see anything fishy, like bumps or itchy patches, which you should report to your health care provider; you become a more empowered patient, because you can specifically describe concerns; you should know your bod, girl! Write down everything. Weird rashes, discomfort, birth control side effects or questions – whatever – log everything you want to discuss with the gynecologist. Bring the document to the appointment; don’t rely on memory. [FIGURE 2]

Do some homework. Research what you can expect at the appointment. This page from the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists shows exactly what tests and exams you happen at an annual appointment, based on your age. At the appointment, get so chill in the waiting room. Call on whatever your go-to relaxation exercise is, whether it’s progressive muscle relaxation, visualization or deep breathing. [FIGURE 2] Tell the health care provider if you’re nervous or anxious. She’ll probably move more slowly and explain procedures more thoroughly, instead of just throwing you in the stirrups. Learn how to get in touch with the doctor after the appointment. Should you email her, call or talk to her assistant or office manager? Ask! Make it easy for your future self to reconnect if you have questions or concerns. [FIGURE 3]

Leave shitty gynecologists. More specifically: If she doesn’t listen to your concerns, comes off as judgmental or rushes through appointments, find a new doctor.

[FIGURE 3]

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Carla Avruch Untitled (2014)

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C a r l a A v r u c h 41

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Mimi Chiahemen Words with Friend

Words with Friend Ours is a singular Over hundreds of texts a week we we bridge the betweenToronto Toronto Ours is afriendship. singular friendship. Over hundreds of texts a week bridge thedistance distance between andand New New York,York, sharing the banal and the intimate from our days. sharing the banal and the intimate from our days. #bed

#breakfast

#bed

Words with Friend

We are feminists and social activists, albeit she more studiously than me. And I learn a lot from my beloved friend Elana. It's learning about her, and myself that I cherish the most. It reawakens my awe in technology of the PostOurs are is a singular friendship. Over hundreds of texts a week we bridge the distance New Internet age. Cellphones like these tiny computers that communicate thoughts at thebetween behestToronto of ourand thumbs: York, sharing theall banal and the intimate from our days. silly ones, sad ones, random ones of the thoughts … We are feminists and social activists, albeit she more studiously than me. And I learn a lot from my beloved friend Elana. It’s learning about her, and myself that I cherish the most. It reawakens my awe in technology of the Post-Internet age. Cellphones are like these tiny computers that communicate thoughts at the behest of our thumbs: silly ones, sad ones, random ones all of the thoughts … #breakfast #aprilfools

#bed

#RIPBryceMackenzie

#aprilfools

#RIPBryceMackenzie We are feminists and social activists, albeit she more studiously than me. And I learn a lot from my beloved friend Elana. It's learning about her, and myself that I cherish the most. It reawakens my awe in technology of the PostInternet age. Cellphones are like these tiny computers that communicate thoughts at the behest of our thumbs: silly ones, sad ones, random ones all of the thoughts …

#aprilfools

We've been friends for nearly a decade, but I'm always learning something new about Elana. like that she doesn’t believe in marriage - for herself. #RIPBryceMackenzie

I hear that loud and clear, but still I pressed her for an explanation. That's where I learned something about myself — I'm not always so secure in my convictions as a feminist. But I am sure there are lots of women who must feel like I do at times, that their desires aren't We’ve been friends for nearly a decade, but I’m always learning something new about Elana. like she feminist enough. I wasn't asking Elana to defend herthat views, but to illuminate them and enlighten me. For one, she says, she's not a bride. doesn’t believe in marriage—for herself. We've been friends for nearly a decade, but I'm always learning something new about Elana. like that she doesn’t believe in marriage - forI herself. hear that loud and clear, but still I pressed her for an

explanation.I hear That’s where I learned that loud and clear, but still Isomething pressed her forabout an explanation. where I learned something myself — I'm notas always myself—I’mThat's not always so secure inabout my convictions a so secure in sure my convictions as a feminist. I am surewho there are lots of feminist. But I am there are lots ofBut women must womenit’s who must the feel like I do at Indeed, times, thatfor their desires aren't is a Fair, but that’s just aesthetics and I know her enough to know about politics. Elana, marriage feel at times, that their desires feminist enough. I wasn't asking Elana to aren’t defend her views, but to colonially-nuanced, patriarchal institution that shelike seesI do nofeminist illuminate them and enlighten For one, she says, she's not a bride. enough. I wasn’t asking Elana to me. defend her views, but to illuminate them and enlighten me. For one, she says, she’s not a bride. 44

Fair, but that’s just aesthetics and I know her enough to know it’s about the politics. Indeed, for Elana, marriage is a colonially-nuanced, patriarchal S u minstitution m e r 2 0 1that 5 she sees no

secure in my convictions as a feminist. But I am sure there are lots of women who must feel like I do at times, that their desires aren't feminist enough. I wasn't asking Elana to defend her views, but to illuminate them and enlighten me. For one, she says, she's not a bride.

Fair, but that’s just aesthetics and I know her enough to know it’s about the politics. Indeed, for Elana, marriage is a colonially-nuanced, patriarchal institution in which she sees no value. Fair, but that’s just aesthetics and I know her enough to know it’s about the politics. Indeed, for Elana, marriage is a colonially-nuanced, patriarchal institution that she sees no

That’s all well + good and salient, but I couldn’t get behind the idea that if I choose to be married I’m implicitly a victim of paternalism. It was unnerving to not be on the same page, but I think it’s more important to be on the same side. It’s one thing to hear, ‘I don’t feel comfortable in this green dress, but on you it’s stunning’. It’s another altogether to hear, ‘This green dress is noxious, but if you really like it..’ You would likely question your taste and/or never again tell said friend how much you dig a green dress. I think univocal feminism has similarly high stakes. But if we strive for inclusivity, we make room for a multiplicity of feminist expressions.

Collectively, we can re-contextualize the oppressive and change it from within. We don’t have to throw our babies out with the bathwater. I stand with bell hooks when she says one “cannot be anti-abortion and an advocate of feminism. But hooks also says that “[a] woman can insist she would never choose to have an abortion [...] and still be an advocate of feminist politics”. So despite deeply understanding, and largely agreeing with Elana’s points, I stand by mine. I think you can make that meaning for yourself. Yes, marriage is rooted in archaic values, but I think its meaning of for a modern feminist can be selfdetermined. I mean, isn’t that precisely the point? If feminism is successful, should we not be able to subvert previously imposed limits and redefine the terrain for ourselves? Does the the message have to forever married to the medium? I think not, and I am a feminist.

M i m i C h i a h e m e n 45