women

Provocateur lives!!! When the whole system turns up against me I feel I have made a point that has touched truly painful issues. It makes me thrilled.

| Henna Timanttimetsä

Let’s talk about harassment in art. Yes let’s there are an awful lot of shades to harassment, has been since art school. It is a whisper and common knowledge it is there. Not the easiest of topics to bring up anywhere but definitely not easy there where it is seen almost an organic part of doing and part of interaction somehow. I have felt it is like working in a bar, all is possible and will happen without consequences for men and it is reality that has to be seen as a fact and always be prepared for it. It is not much talked about, done much about and anyone who brings the topic on the table is a whining weakling who cannot handle the toughness of the business. The amount of pure harassment and ill can be so devastating it is time someone brought it up since art is good, right, it is doing good in the world, right? How nice should one be then?

Sexual tension is seen a part of making art. We draw and paint nudes from the beginning. Being an artist as such and as an idea is expected to have an open relationship to sexuality, inhibitions, taboos, act of sex, shame and artists are thought to live more sexually liberated lives than most. It goes with the territory to learn to handle and laugh about it. This somehow makes it right to harass female artists and students, especially those who tackle the touchy topic bringing it up and do not tolerate treatment given. It is expected to face harassment at some point, sex and art go hand in hand self-evidently. It is expected the kind of openness to sex, understanding and tolerance to all kinds of forms of sex (this is an illusion). A historical narrative of artists is they have got a deep contact to sexuality especially men and they are allowed to behave accordingly. When woman does the same she is punished as she is not in the game when game is conducted by men. How deep does this perspective and look into human sexuality and hierarchy actually go is a good question as art institutions do have strict views on showing sexually explicit material, or is toying with sex and consent just a shallow fun for boys in the game which game is more a rule as it is for them and goes with the territory that women are used, a game only for men who play it hard. One can ask as art is male dominated where rumors move fast and the famous narrative of heroic artist is kept alive since it brings in customers does this relic ever make progress and grow up? What this in deep view reveals other than sexism, ignorance, abuse, hedonism, repetitious behavioral codes, conventions and practices which can be given harsh critique, sweeping under carpet unable to face reality is not changing anything. Sex is and has been topic to be horrified over in art, although sexual harassment and moving on up via sexual relationship is nothing new, wide and well existent. Loose morals and misconduct belong to rebellious, dim, fun-loving, careless and hazy portrait of an artist which image has been admired as this artist is free and creative force of nature, a true man who makes and conquers.

When woman does the same story is different as is normal. Misbehaving woman is a scandal in a place where to look good is all for businesses sake and the children. In business where ill happens behind curtains something out of control that is made visible is shocking. Still woman is there to offer sexual favors as she wants to succeed, she poses, is looked at and touched, poked, made fun of and minimized. What a fool. She has to work hard to get anywhere on her own, so suggestions on how about it may sound tempting. It is also women’s benefit as industry’s benefit to call and decline such terms of making, make harassment visible, to make an end to such culture of abuse is necessary. It is no surprise sexism is rampant in art. Those who desperately wish to make it use sex as a way. Issue cannot be dealt with because those who use power are not dealing with sexism or think it as a problem. There are no laws by which to live in art, breaking rules is part of making art. There are other problems like finance and how to be heard and seen. As long as sexists and chauvinists are protected and admired as great artists who cannot be accused of any ill nothing changes. When there is no accountability, transparency or professional ways to deal with difficult clearly criminal issues nothing changes. When morals is lacking how can there be any trustworthy voice within art and of art which talks about those important social issues for the rest of us?

If art is rebellion why the scandal? Why sensitive skin and offence? Why sex makes the same horror and appall as ever?

Frightening forecasts and events stand an everyday phenomenon, unsurprising in a way but always new, bigger than the last one.

| Henna Timanttimetsä

There are monsters like in stories invading spaces of ours which spaces we think are ours and there are real ones just as bad. Monsters in this case today are dictators, illnesses, refugees, terrorists, Muslims, trolls, advertisers, salesmen, politicians and bankers. Some monsters are made to hide issues that do more damage than the visible ill. Disturbing the balance of ours which we like to have and feel safe in, stay undisturbed, spaces which we do not have nor hold forever completely but defend against intrusion ferociously especially politically. Those with means do not have to think about borders when they have no respect for boundaries and crossing them. Something that is ours cannot be taken away but what is? What kind of news value is there other than what this fear of invaders, fear of losing one’s space stands for, fear of becoming of some horrible intolerable change that will alter everything for the worse? Worse than has already happened over and over again escalating. The total crash is coming could be said without much understanding of how things effect on each other, to us and an ultimate crash because there is not much understanding nor will to understand why. Intrusion, invasion, ultimate disturbance, catastrophe, survival, decline, misery. News value brought by common public scare understandably, the value scare brings cannot be underestimated. Fear of losing something valuable is an industry. Life as it is and will never be again, worth while having and owning, easily destroyed. What can be build again and how will it be good again? Emotion of fear and what we should be afraid of is exploited because it is the easiest motivator to act upon, feeling is present, in a way everlasting as it is pleaded for, kept alive and therefore profitable.

Those easily scared may become angry in their fear against those who are threatening something very basic essence and an ingredient of ours. Team up to feel more secure is to protect values, protect the group at hand, guarantee survival and success. It is a very primal reaction to fear, useful as such for living and is on surface of what makes us thinking considering humans solving problems for us not to be afraid again and always of that same monster who is deciding how we should live. How to live with fear and not be afraid? Whether we like to admit it or not irrational faith-based mass movements have never been the best solution into solving threats and ways to live. This is the conclusion I make on what is going on now and on reactions of hate which we have witnessed during recent years. Hateful acts may look like they are of bravery and strength. We tend to be afraid of a lot which most is absurd and out of control without much reasonable base but partly fear is grounding us and keeping us from evolving on. Does fear keep us away from illusions and disinformation which tend to take too much hold?  Female sex is targeted as usual, the vulnerable, seemingly weaker and fragile as are children. Is the best defence to be prepared and learn self-defence, make oneself a frightening opponent? Our constant falling into fearing immensely of threats that are there lurking behind the corner somewhere unnoticed, some hidden forces, strange people like animals guided by irrational urges and beliefs, monsters, dangers, death and sickness all over, darkness and the unknown which can take us over just like that and it will no doubt. Fear itself is dark and can take over completely making vision narrow. We are alone, small, insignificant, easily hurt, killed, tortured, bullied, offended, exploited, abused, bruised, cut into pieces losing our minds, left to rot if we do not defend ourselves, be cautious and be prepared always.  

We are afraid of failure, shame, losing face and name, losing friends, possibilities. Fear of stepping on someone’s toes, authorities can be frightening and they often times know how to use this fear to stay in power and rule. Fear is useful and painful in this regard how we are to stay put, in our places and consider our chances. We can expect and be aware of dangers but how much do we have to be wary and guarded. It is not good for us to shelter ourselves too much for many reasons. This sheltering happens for women and is built-in. Women who defy this timid place face obstacles and are tested more than men. It is tempting to become too comfortable, you never know when your comfort is bad for you, against you. For some the most feared are afterlife experiences purgatory and hell, which for some already exist on Earth, to be prepared for afterlife in that case is ruled by fear, threats in this earthly life are those of religion’s creation. Do we, as it seems, fear outside threats most and not ourselves? We don’t see ourselves as dangerous to ourselves and others as what threat of Hell is telling we should. We can be afraid of losing ourselves, not being interesting enough, not being successful enough or not living at all, not getting work, afraid of rejection and loneliness &c. What happens when we lose all this fear which can be a load, burdening worry that things don’t go as planned, fears of modern man whose interest is self-interest and fears are socially bound? Will we become free when we lose modern anxiety and torment?   Press is loaded with economical and violent threatening things that are overcoming that blow up on our media space everyday. Interesting is how we react to those News and which ones. The ones that come closer and closer, that are so close they connect to our daily lives and begin to bother our spaces especially spaces which are also virtual and closer behind the corner on our faces.   http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/2015/12/swedens-feminist-foreign-minister-has-dared-to-tell-the-truth-about-saudi-arabia-what-happens-now-concerns-us-all/

Poetry used as ’a perfect weapon’ for recruiting violent Jihadis, study finds http://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/dec/29/poetry-used-as-a-perfect-weapon-for-recruiting-violent-jihadis-study-finds?CMP=twt_gu

We like to predict, tell the future. It is something we do because we must see what is ahead and what is going on inside opponents head. To calculate what might happen when we do something is also wise. Tell research results what can be conducted from them, insights into details and facts, new information, new ideas, what happened and will happen and why is more recommended, to base action and talk on facts. To paint black images, stories and forecasts to make headlines and turmoil has been normal part of making a gap in between us and them, isolating and socially killing people. Tempting ways to make an impact on public opinion is to invent the evidence, invent anything what could be worth telling as a scoop, tell something and leave something else untold, blame the other party heavily and fully, exaggerate, make a scapegoat. National politics that expands from blame, shaming happens us versus them as a rule. It gives ground for phobias to grow, moods to swing up to very hostile and violent as has happened. Fascism which never went away is more visible than in years.

Movements of crowds are fast as are emotional responds, thoughts do not evolve as fast to make progress. Reasoning of how much emotions effect on how we act and what we think about things gets easily ignored. To feel something strongly is considered a right to have and not irrational or harmful when it comes to nations, political and religious interests. Media is a kind of testing site of what will happen when creating mass hysteria, maybe happens other than selling magazines. Interesting question is what media makes, panic, mania and other sudden uncontrollable reactions. Such irresponsible practices that often seem hasty as if we didn’t know what is going to happen in the end. To be manipulated to this extent is therefore very accurate issue to wonder. What is to be expected, why we expect what we do, why we create talk that is hateful without truth in it, predictable or unpredictable anything very much beats me: one way to make harm is to troll, one reason to be a troll is to make harm and mould virtual space and mass opinion. Action which is violent wants to let it explode, shit on the fan. Interesting is how strongly fears we have mould the whole society and to what things we pay attention, our sense of reality, what is true, how we behave now and in the future. Is there learning and what is the essential change happening?One can say fearing is normal elementary part of our emotional bodily map, map of nerves, organs and hormones opening and closing us to others and to ourselves.

We can be scared of ourselves which seems to be the case when oneself is hard to face, one’s self is denied, you are your biggest opposition resisting the effort of learning who you are, a wall to climb. One can be scared to look inside and analyse oneself because it is the case of learning about one’s imperfections, perversions, thoughts and all what is uncomfortable and shameful. To predict what will happen to anyone is partly out of our hands. Tell weighty information on something takes an expert and authority. Who is the biggest authority when it comes to facing oneself trusting the knowledge that we have, that we are psychologically and spiritually complicated incomplete beings and there is a lot to learn for all about this aspect of humans. We may need an expert to tell why we behave and feel the way we do because we can and will get lost, which is also one thing to be off and as odd as it sounds, we do not know what is wrong with us until we hit the wall, not to speak of how to fix our emotional selves.

To whom authority is given in this regard, in which kind of science, people and knowledge we believe in plays a mighty part, by whom this knowledge is used, analysed, how and what kind of characteristics do experts have to have to be trustworthy, reasonable, understanding, weighty and effective in a good way? Do we trust more male or female expert, young or old, black or white, rich or poor, Western or Eastern, Christian or Muslim, which degrees and occupations get most credits? Politics and traditions mould our ways of thinking more than we like to admit. CEOs and economists tend to do well in who is listened to depending on the matter at hand of course. CEOs give political advise very gladly as life advise as well. Who do we count on and trust seems to be somewhat matter of visuals, values, statuses and official credentials in show, a public agreement of an expert and again intellect of a mass. This goes well with who we think is crazy and whose talk counts. Thinking you know who knows the truth is something we should always question. Do we say we don’t know when we really do not know how something is in reality? Knowing who really has valuable information can be matter of instinct and experience. What information given and withheld does then? Who can and could be trusted when politicians act like clowns and making politics seems like a comedy show creating destruction. Who can be questioned and be forced to answer, who is accountable? All these good and nice people.

https://www.rt.com/op-edge/328378-europe-demoralized-invaded-violated/ ”If I want to go to New Zealand, for example, there is a process. Quite a strict one. And if I turn up in that country without the correct documentation, then I will not be getting in.”

Let’s get back to Flashdance: There is more to the movie than the plot. It is more clever than you give it credit for.

| Henna Timanttimetsä

It is a fairytale kind of spectacle or anti-spectacle in a spectacle, if that is a thing. Anti-spectacle in the sense of changing of the perspective towards gender, class, work and art, romantic is the spectacle, a pattern we expect. The spectacle we are used to seeing and thinking in terms of movies and in general how class, work, gender and art function and are, are thought to represent and be like. The American dream in this case where a beautiful young woman reaches out for her dream, a place in the sun and ends up getting more or ‘all’, a romantic relationship with a Man with a Porsche, who is also the owner of the factory where Alexandra, the woman in question, works at as a welder. One big plus of the movie is it does not highlight the work Alexandra does, welding is just work with men as co-workers, it makes the movie hugely more interesting though, and her the one who lives outside the box and is allowed to do so. She is not harassed by her co-workers, her abilities are not questioned. It is truly a beautiful setting, which her choice of work, most definitely would be seen weird still today.

To explore deeper into what the movie is all about is worth our while as it has been deeply overlooked as many romantic movies that are meant for women usually are. To pay attention to details, characters, camera shots, what is being looked at and told via tensions between women and men and why those tensions exist. What happens between the sexes, between women especially, what are sexes both expected to do, look and be like. Movie is a language as is dance as is sex, sexuality, clothing and gender. You have to focus on to read it all and actually think what are we looking at, what happens there and why all the time. It is not just an entertaining show where you can relax and forget what is going on, this is told via contrasts between sleazy bars, working men and art, how women are treated in different settings and how these settings differ, how women want to be treated and what do they desire of their lives to be. Movie is never just a movie that is meant to entertain, not even those that are made for that purpose, nor is music or the dance acts that seem to be out of place. Point is easily missed when the romantic is what stays interesting and in the focus.

In a bar where ambitious fit and talented dancers show their art, act for paying customers who are watching and are a bit amazed by the unexpected shows. Contrast is also to the other bar where dancing is not the primary interest of anyone, only nude female bodies, that move in a certain way. Women are dancing for money but in a show-your-ass-kind of way, but they still want to be discovered and dream of making it. What are people watching and why, who gets attention? Watching happens for instant gratification, simplicity of getting pleasure cheap and for fun. A bar is a world of something else than the workplace and not a place of thought, burdening oneself. Customers of the bar are not the assumed ordinary art lovers, but that is the point. Why should people be provoked to think more than is necessary, why not give them what they want? To whom is art for and why is it a class issue? What is art and where is art, who is capable of art and why it is a special occasion in a special place? High and low seem to be repulsed by each other, classes stay separated  like oil and water. The dance acts, art and artists, are really in the right place. Intention of the movie is not to depict a straightforward story in a manner of this is what happens: this is what we dream of happening to us. It is not a children’s story and it is not pink. It seems light, but is heavier when one starts exploring. That are the expectations and frame women are supposed to fit in, want, act upon and are shown in the movie, that those who dare, can change the game. There is social critique hidden there to be found.

To say Flashdance is a feminist movie is not quite what a true movie lover might expect. What do you think about the turn, that a seemingly light Hollywood movie is feminist in a very kick-ass way and about the structural difficult issue of choosing how to get ahead in life, on one’s own terms and talent, and not sleeping with the boss or buddy who has connections. What do you think about when after having seen and evaluated for example the scene where Alexandra goes and finds her friend who has gone to work as a stripper, moving herself in conventional stripper manner, she is grabbed off the stage by Alexandra and escorted out. In the scene Alexandra’s clothing and standing position compared to her friend tell a lot when friend the stripper ends up in a puddle on street wearing only panties and high heels and is cold. Money, she earned gets wet in the rain on the pavement. Alexandra’s loose pants and sneakers when she stands firmly behind the naked woman who has fallen down and sold her body for money to please men may seem easy and naive, but it is something very basic, a woman on the ground beaten down feeling there is no other opportunity for her.

After having read couple of critiques about the movie and clearly many have missed the point: When one is an art critic it is essential to see behind the expected, the image and be free of bias. What is the seen image telling us, what happens without words, what is the setting and who are the characters, what do they do. Do you need more clues, because explaining has to be done also in a very basic manner, obviously also for critics. When you are an art critic, don’t fall for the simple clichés. Such poor analysis destroys a lot, as does arrogance, assumptions and cynicism. Minimizing culture that is aimed at and is about women and girls is a normal practice. It is a learned reaction which comes without thinking. A black woman eating a banana in a scene where women talk about relationships, well sounds as cliché as anything, but it happens in couple of seconds, and is easily missed, but telling. To make it as you with your raw capabilities, without handouts and favours..

Flashdance, is a feminist movie https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flashdance in which woman does work as a welder and pursues her dream to become a professional dancer, also in which women help each other, face sexual harassment and deal with it by acting out, consequences lurking there and threat of violence is almost a certainty. To oppose men means you have to be one and be prepared. Movie portrays different kinds of female roles, a gallery of different kinds of women. The expectations of what women should be like, playing with stereotypes with which women struggle and hold on to as coping mechanisms. They may be afraid to go against the machine or don’t know how to or should they, and those who do not fit in the accepted roles especially, seem to be out of sync or do what they need to do despite whatever. Interesting are the different kinds of female characters there, how there are systematic learned rules of behaviour that stick, codes for genders and how these codes are taken for granted. How women portrayed are in their places and obviously struggle and lack power. They try to move on up as do men, they have dreams. Men try to move inside women’s panties and sex is clearly a very basic tool of control and making it. It is the first thought, easy way out, a getaway car and motive. World of art is a dusty stagnant relic too, which needs heavy dusting. Alex, the leading women, is afraid to enter this monument of perfected trained fragile-looking fairy-like ballerinas and primadonnas. She want’s to make it on her own with her own credentials with her talent and does not need a man to do that for her.

Real life is stranger than fiction says this welder.

 

”I have a friend who has a simple test for a movie: Is this movie as interesting as the same things would be, happening in real life? A lot of movies aren’t, and ”Flashdance” sure isn’t. If this movie had spent just a little more effort getting to know the heroine of its story, and a little less time trying to rip off ”Saturday Night Fever,” it might have been a much better film.”

http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/flashdance-1983

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085549/reviews

http://articles.latimes.com/2013/may/09/entertainment/la-et-cm-flashdance-musical-review-segerstrom-20130509

Reviews and critiques strongly reflect the persona of the critic who is writing. For some reason in this case feminist perspective does not shine through. Wonder why.

What does a child understand, what does a woman understand?

| Henna Timanttimetsä

To being born a girl means still very different things everywhere than being born a boy. This must be said aloud since it is thought that we have managed to solve such issues as inequality of sexes, solve inequality at birth here in the West where feminism has effected positively in how women and girls are treated and what kind of opportunities they will have in their lives. To speak of inequality at birth we mostly think of those developing countries in which more conservative points of views come to decide how sexes become to follow their duties on strictly guided paths, how difference is made clear. Difference is a gap but also something intolerable. Intolerable and agonizing point is where one is born into and sex is unchangeable truth, overwhelming and either bad or good. Knowing what are those two sexes for without possibility to change that mental landscape. How are our capabilities utilized by society, family and by persons themselves is a key issue and what is there to be utilized, what for are we produced products? The very heart is how well can we live as persons or can not and how roughly are we pushed to be an obedient mass. What is a nation for? What happens to those who simply do not fit in? How do invariable, rightful and lawful members of society make the construct of nation build by families?

Who can and will have minds of their own, minds of our own, a mind of my own, how is mind educated? Family values and where they come from play an important part in how children become to value themselves, others and how they see their possibilities and roles outside the family. To be able to see sexes as equal but different has proved to be a very difficult task as sex is seen through traditions; how we should be and become, models for living are passed on though we are very different now than 50 years ago, at least as civilization, and born to do different things as such. Opportunities are there to be grasped for more people than ever, knowledge can be found and used. What are we born to do then with what we have got? How will we find the right and tools to know who we are? Who is to decide and when will child decide for himself/herself? That women and girls are by definition less than men easily happens to be the guiding thought even this definition is not verbalized but an actively played part with gestures, clothes, innuendos, structure of society which leads the way. Gender roles which are unconsciously followed because we are not challenged enough to do otherwise, think otherwise? Are we that irrational? The construction and basis of our gender ideology we obediently follow has not been thoroughly changed. Such turnover would alter centuries old structure beneath us and the world as we know it. Would we be completely lost? There are many reasons why we tightly stick to safety which stability brings. It is a time and energy-consuming a too complex issue to tackle with to change the very ground. How women and girls are treated by default, by an invisible order, how will they be provided for the same opportunities as boys and why it is extremely important to pay attention to consciously influence on changing inequality. Not to pamper but to make sure there are no walls and obstacles that normally are there for girls. Boys are naturally given the place in which they are glorified, important, let to run and act wild and somehow the directing place falls on them just like that. Their honor lies in different achievements. Woman’s honor is her calmness, her kindness, gentleness and prohibition from sexual pleasure.

The happening of gender, making of it by thinking we know what gender is and what does any gender do, is supposed to be like, the easiness of falling into old ways of thinking is the place where we have to be extra careful. How we do not favor someone because of their outer traits, because we see them as better because of their sex, because self-assurance is a sign of quality, because wearing a suit is a sign of power, because those who have the loudest voice are allowed to speak for others etc. It is extra important to unlearn such learned ways of thinking where sex by default is something particular because we are first thinking persons then sexual beings. This duality we go through from very young age: am I my genitals, am I my brain? I am not my sex although I am completely defined by it, by what I look like which is feminine and sexual, sexualized and for sexual pleasure. I am much more than that which can be difficult to pay attention to and very difficult to acknowledge. This I do not say to boast, I state it as a fact that happens repeatedly not only to me but to many women, which detail is a stepping stone for those who look and who function like the most repetitious. Looks should not be an issue but it is always. It is as if I am not for me and I am not allowed to the same rights to exist, make, create and accomplish as others. Stating this it is clear we are not equal. What I represent in the eyes of others defines me and some of my opportunities. How much does it weigh how I define myself and how broadly I stretch to test my limits remains still to be seen. Paradox is that women can be very flexible and capable of doing a large variety of things when they are allowed to try.

One cannot highlight enough how important role of adults is, any adult, all of them. To not call women whores just because you can, to not be violent towards children and women, do not be violent at all. To understand what is violence, verbal and mental violence, abuse, exploitation and violation. It is a growing process for all. Adults are not ready people, they do not know everything, they do not possesses divine laws by which to tell who is absolutely right and what that other should be like.

http://i100.independent.co.uk/article/dear-daddy-this-rape-prevention-video-is-incredibly-powerful–ZyRy2DPpqg

Freedom to exercise and move is a basic human right.

| Henna Timanttimetsä
How much moving do our bodies and minds need to be healthy? My phone tells me there are recommendations according to which to walk 6000 steps per day is a minimum which all should follow. It is not just my phone that tells me things, it is my body and my brain. They both are needy for sports every day. Without moving and sweating I begin to feel a low that is very uncomfortable and painful and I feel how not moving effects. To push one’s limits via sports is what also tells that one can push those bodily boundaries pretty far, even further. As I sit down most of the day I must walk and jog daily. My feet hurt because of this routine but I know it is a good hurt: I have used my muscles, my thinking benefits from this muscle pain, gush of blood. On that track which I go to whether it rains or not, heavy breathing against cold breeze forcing of myself to go faster and do more, running uphills as fast as I can. I do it even I feel tired, especially when I feel tired.
To think there are prohibitions for women to not use their bodies to exercise is quite horrible thinking the benefits of sports and feeling of freedom it brings, feeling of youthfulness and happiness. Body that is made a jail is also jail for the mind, which jailing of course serves those who like to rule those feminine bodies and sentiments as those bad things females possess ruin the society, ruin minds of men bringing chaos and destruction of virtues and order. When female body causes such dangerous effects on those who can be corrupted by devious and evil thoughts, which obviously and naturally are there, men corrupted by looking at women’s bodies, thought occurs how sensitive and naive are those men, how delicate and horny by nature poor creatures. Power of women is therefore pretty mighty. Those who are born males are not corrupted by their gender and sex and are given opportunities because they deserve the privileges. To deserve something is interesting here. They who are lifted above and shall not be taken down by women, this must be the logic, are holier. Women, less holy, those sub-beings who are corrupted and irrationally ill need the chains. It feels rather strange to be a woman.

http://time.com/4143865/saudi-arabia-elections-women/?xid=time_socialflow_twitter 

Saudi Women Make History in Elections

Something to say about women in art, in music, in any craft which have been taken over by men usually white men: Creativity by and of women how is it seen or not seen as work and valued or not.

| Henna Timanttimetsä

To begin to analyse topic of creative womanhood, creative women which is always acute, easy to make controversial, scandalous. A topic which is on the nerve still in this time is a thing of puzzle where one has to find the very issue of the dilemma existing, problem and glitch that keeps on making controversy and scare being the obstacle above which we struggle to rise, look objectively and which we tackle to solve. Generation after generation change happens so slowly it begins to look like something that cannot be but an suffocating relic a carved in stone kind of command that we fight against and it just stays like a stain. How unbearably demanding it is to listen and watch the state of denying women from being complete. It is so easy to tell us what women should be doing, look like and what women are for, tell that with threats and ultimatums. Women under, women on their backs, women in the places where women do things women do; this is the kind of way to speak that should be history, the way of instructing and ruling what women are supposed to do, what women are and stand for. How women are treated within society reflects how any kind of difference is treated and welcomed, how strict purity of society kept in the sense of bordering and limiting how people interact, who can and who can’t, who has a say, which laws are in use. What kinds of limits we take seriously and obey, what kind of border crossing is intimidating and seen as wrong. What kinds of things we get punished for and how scared we are to be?

Interesting study on differences between concepts xenophobia and racism, roots and reasons for
http://philpapers.org/archive/KIMXAR.pdf Xenofobia and racism, David Haekwon Kim and Roland R. Sundström

It is interesting to see similarities between racism and misogyny, homophobia and xenophobia, reasoning any kind of discrimination, reasons for brutality and cruelty are very irrational and based on ignorance and need to use power in a violent way, how putting groups of people below is justified and happening without an end.


It is difficult to see things in different ways, from different perspectives, from a view of another, see in new kinds of ways that can be refreshing but weird, that might show something other than what has been repeated for years and years, to see another kind of truth, something one kind of truth is said over and over without much change in sight, without logic, compassion, looking for easy answers is too clear. If there has been change it has been so slow it has been barely visible, barely there or barely existing, hidden: to detect that altering in reality can be exciting, rejuvenating. So what is the scare and reluctance?

Change which is bare, powerful, instant, compulsory and challenging is something we do not wish to witness and experience since it can be too much to take and handle. It is a lot of work to learn and accept, do all over again, begin from scratch, do a total turnover when all we want is comfort and security. Change is something we like to hinder, at least some of us, comfort of old ways of thinking, seeing and doing hold on tight. It is intolerable but necessary, something we need to have in order to have meaning and value. Things that stay the same start stinking, rotting and die. It is difficult to change yourself and your views especially if you are not prepared, not willing, not ready and accepting toward the fact that you do change, like it or not, your body changes, something around you changes all the time. What are the things that do not change? How does one’s mind and brain change in the process of aging, in the process of changing without much say over, no control over one’s physicality? As it seems we let body rule which means the sex we represent dictates what we should be and do in our lives, how we are perceived as humans in comparison to others and in society, what is one’s place is the body we happen to be born in. How to understand change, the inevitability, the scary, the happening and participate?

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2015/12/french-revolution-advertising/418920/

When existence is about hating because it is the way to solve things, maybe learned, maybe the only way to react, it can be the emotion one is grown into, it is the feeling making us and them, me and those others, separation, segregation, discrimination. The way to act when there are no other effective ways to make one’s voice heard, power in the moment of powerlessness or in need to stay in power. Hate is a consuming emotion but it is creation via destruction and low. You can experience the amount of energy emotion uses in you when you are horribly angry, exhausting. Hate tires you up, it wears you out showing no way out other than hurt and causing more hurt, bringing despair and hopelessness but also a strange illusion of power, individual power in how one acts and in making one’s mark via violence, against oneself and others. What to hate? To hate is justified because you have suffered, you have a position that is threatened, you have been treated wrongly, you want to make other people feel the same pain you have felt. To be angry is purifying but it also is when felt on a daily basis eating out strength and creativity when used against others in violent way. How to use one’s anger and rage constructively is what is useful to go through consciously every day as anger is felt and is powerful as there are angering issues nonstop. You hate because you have the right and you have something to lose, something you do not want to share.

https://lareviewofbooks.org/essay/not-a-british-subject-race-and-poetry-in-the-uk/ n his 1962 introduction to The New Poetry, Al Alvarez famously railed against the Movement’s overriding “concept of gentility” — the “belief that life is always more or less orderly, people always more or less polite, their emotions and habits more or less decent and more or less controllable; that God, in short, is more or less good.”

 

She was called a slut, she was stoned to death.

Kuva | | Henna Timanttimetsä

Beauty is heartbreaking, it is intolerable, it is threatened, rugged, bursting.

| Henna Timanttimetsä

To think about beauty we like having which pleases our eye, our senses, is pleasant, but which we like to say is what comes from within, personality, kindness, creativity, altruism, giving and loving. It is what comes from the inside to show on the outside still to understand that there is so much we do not see or can imagine which is beauty. The thought and fact that all is not visible but entails beauty which is not detectable to our senses, that we must have intuition to know it, instinct, sense, reason, comprehension of what there may be underneath, beneath, hidden but alive in all living beings which is valuable and how is it valuable, who values beauty and for what. Beauty of understanding body of beauty, that our senses, reasoning and emotions can lie, image is not true, first impressions fail to prove anything in the end just mere fractions of someone and something.

Grief

| Henna Timanttimetsä

Is this a time of and for world-wide grief (don’t remember when it wouldn’t have been such time), something unexpected and the terrible we must process together such as finding solution and standing together against those who wish to destroy our modern way of life and belief in common good, in good in man and that peace will prevail? How will peace prevail when peace has been sought via making war, via false evidence and constant suspicion, us against them. By destroying states and despots to give room to radicalism to flourish and wild savage bunches to make new states where infrastructure, growth and sense of belonging have been demolished. When making business and protecting business’ interests has been the most important thing in making global politics, politics which serves business and financial profit is not politics of peace, it is a theater for the media. Peace does not sell but warmhearted quotes make a difference on our walls. It does not make constant growth, peace is difficult when there is no history of peace. War on the other hand makes skyrocketing profit and jobs, it makes media fuzz, social media jackpots for trolls and rumors on who is bad and who is good. Sides matter, taking sides, making profit, winning, missions. In this light terrorism is not surprising, that it spreads in to Europe and without being detected in advance manages to do damage, kill mass of innocent people.

It is a slogan that we should not be afraid but what is more frightening than those forceful in faith and hate. Hate against Western values, tactics, morals, superior attitude and our history of colonialism. We should be scared because scare is to prepare us that there might be something gone horribly wrong. We still see the Middle East as something faraway and therefore it cannot harm us, that troops can be sent there to battle and fight as it was another planet beneath us. When war comes closer to us strange is that it strikes to be a surprise and an act of hateful people who randomly attack like animals. As there were mass protests against wars to Iraq and Afghanistan wisdom was war does not solve anything. Is it time to say nothing has been solved by this horrible waste of lives and money and those wars definitely have caused more harm than good for all humanity. That is what I grieve.