PODCAST INTERVIEW - Guerrilla Girls On Tour!

Poster Workshop at Rollins College

Check out Madama Ambi's PODCAST interview with Aphra Behn, Edith Evans and Eva Le Gallienne at Rollins College this past week!

http://madamaambi.blogspot.com/2011/10/guerrillagirls-on-tour.html

Sex, Power and Speaking Truth: Anita Hill 20 years later.

I was so happy to be able to attend this conference with thousands of other feminists on October 15^th at Hunter College in New York City. The speakers were amazing and the organizers did a great job of moving the conference along to inspire and promote dialogue that will no doubt lead to more advances towards the end of sexual harassment in the years to come.

Moments I will remember include:

Charles Ogletree of Harvard (Anita Hill’s lead lawyer) remembering that Derek Bell said “We have to equalize society if we are ever going to make progress.” Lani Guinier remembering the positive side of the hearings with “…it was the first time that middle class blacks were on TV.” And my all time favorite comment from the brilliant Melissa Harris-Perry of Tulane who summed up the current focus of congress this way: “If we can just control women’s utereses there will be more jobs.”

I was inspired by the conference and today am having a first meeting of women in theatre to organize an event to address the continued lack of parity for women in theatre. The Public Theatre in NYC will not be producing any plays by women this year. They, unfortunately, they are not the only theatre doing so this season. It seems that it is one step forward and two steps back for theatre women.

Anita Hill gave the keynote. She reflected that the congressional hearings 20 years ago do not define who she is today and urged us all to reclaim our lives and live the lives that we want to.

Women and people of color in theatre must speak the truth. We must speak out against sexism and discrimination in theatre. Stay tuned for details on “Occupy Broadway”. - Aphra Behn

Pan Am

A view of the new TV series Pan Am – by guest blogger Liz C. Chassey

It seems that the TV industry is just as willing as ever to disregard women’s history for the sake of ratings. The most recent offender is ABC’s new show Pan Am. Despite the show’s accurate costumes and sets it neglects to include an accurate account of women in the airline industry in the 1960s.

Real flight attendants in the real 1960s faced sexual discrimination on a regular basis. The job of a flight attendant was touted as a way for young women to see the world but the job duties included fluffing the pillows and lighting the cigars of male passengers, often while wearing skimpy outfits.

Stewardesses were constantly subjected to physical inspections i.e. weighed and measured to ensure that they remained within a certain weight range. If one of them was found to be over the weight limit they were expected to steadily lose weight or be fired writes Kathleen Morgan Barry in Femininity in Flight: A History of Flight Attendants.[1] She also recounts that many flight attendants felt they were clones of each other and were expected to fit the model of the perfect woman at all times. In addition, stewardesses would be fired if they got married or were found to be secretly married.

As Gail Collins writes in her book When Everything Changed,[2] when the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), which was formed in order to defend people who faced discrimination at work, first opened office the staff expected to be fighting racial discrimination. However, stewardesses were the first to come knocking. The airlines fought the push for equality in courts and in Congress with logical fallacies such as “businessmen would be discouraged from flying if the women handing them their coffee and checking their seatbelts were not young and attractive,” writes Collins. However, the flight attendants fought harder. They struggled to prove that not only young, attractive women could be flight attendants; men could do the job, as well. They strove to remove the word “stewardess” from the airlines’ vocabulary. Finally, in 1973, a bit of progress was made; a court decision eliminated the rules on appearance.

The Pilot of Pan Am, which aired on Sunday, September 25 at 10 pm, does not do justice to the struggles of the flight attendants during the women’s movement. There are certainly moments of promise; at the beginning, one of the principle characters is shown being weighed and inspected as real 1960s stewardesses were. However, no more than a mousy “Is that necessary?” is said in protest by anyone on the show. Another stewardess leaves the office of what is presumed to be a counter-culture protest group to fly last minute. But as soon as she boards the plane, she fits herself nicely into the role that is expected of her.

Perhaps the biggest let down of Pan Am is the avoidance of the sexual discrimination that real 60s stewardesses faced. The pilot’s end shot is the four principal stewardesses walking through an airport in the same outfit with the same walk and the same empty smile. One of them looks back at a small girl and smiles at her as if to say, “this can be you someday.” Yes, little one, someday you will have to fight fiercely for rights that should be innate in an equal work place.

Will future episodes of Pan Am include respect for women’s history, the women’s movement, and women in general? TV does not need another show founded on sexism.

---

[1] Barry, Kathleen Morgan. Femininity in Flight: a History of Flight Attendants. Duke University Press, 2007.

[2] Collins, Gail. When Everything Changed. New York: Back Bay Books, 2010.

Museum of Motherhood opens in NYC!

Photo courtesy of Amy Gates at http://crunchydomesticgoddess.com

Check out her awesome blog!

Edith Evans and Aphra Behn did a short performance last night for the opening of the Museum of Motherhood (401 East 84th St in NYC). We asked everyone we knew what they would put in a museum of motherhood:

I would put a stopwatch in a museum of motherhood. The first five years feel like 20, and the next 20 feel like five. From a mother for 22 years named Martha

I would put a video that records the daily, quotidian tasks of mothering and just put in on a loop. My experience with mothering has been that often after hours of juggling mundane tasks, the most unbelievable joy that you never imagined surfaces, and you just hold it and are so incredibly satisfied. - From a mother for 6 years named Ripeheart

I would put something strong like a rock. Something soft like a flower. A piece of baroque music and a statue of the blessed mother who would keep it all in focus because she is the mother of us all. - We are all mothers for anyone we care for so this is from someone who’s been a mother from the age of 10 named Eve.

I would put Laughter, Strength, Joy, Intelligence, and Significance. - From a mother for 29 years, 2 months and a pregnancy of 9 months – Diane

I would put a "book report diorama". A bottle of childrens motrin. Chicken Nuggets. Coupons from babyGap, Childrens Place and Gymboree and the book: "healthy sleep, happy baby". - From a mother of 11 years named Robyn

I would put in a rollercoaster, both exciting and scary at the same time. - From Marionna

I would put a tantrum, a diaper, and the first real conversation you have with your child because those moments disappear so quickly. - From a mom for 7 years who didn't know she needed a boy.

I would put a box of tissues because a mother needs tissues to wipe the tears of joy from her eyes at the happiness a child gives to you; To wipe the nose of her child when they are sick and to wipe away your sniffles when your child finds a significant other who now becomes the most important person on the earth to them. From a mother for 44 and 1/2 years named Mrs. Fitz

I would put photos that people take of their children - not professional photos - snapshots by parents - how they see their children and what they choose to capture of them. - From a mom for 21 years named Maryanne

I would put a bronze bust of my bust because it is an ever-evolving place of food, sleep, aid, comfort and hugs. My chest has become home base. - From a mom for 5 and 3/4 years named Terri

I would put a special hearing aid that puts interruptions in cogent order. A vending machine to dispense items to children as NEEDED (not desired). An extra brain in a jar that could be sutured to my left shoulder in times of high demand (that would be waking hours). A periscope with a Google Earth camera at the end of it so I can see where my kids are at all times. And a large red sign that attaches to the shoulders and continuously flashes the word NO in bright red (that is my default answer to almost every question). The alternate words on the flashing sign woud be "can you justify that request?" - From a lesbian step mom for 29 year and a 'moms' (because that is how our oldest addresses us) for 13 years named mamalamadingdong

I would put diagram of a woman being pulled in a million directions. - From a mom named Rizz

I would put the earth itself in honor of the feminine body because we are all born, from her, equally. - From a Mom named gash girl

I would put my own mother because she is incredible. - From a mother for 30 years named Katie

I would put a bar where they served free drinks to Moms at all times. - From a mom named Georgina

I would put the idea that it never ends. - From a mom for 35 years named Jean

I would put an aunt. Aunts are important. I love being a mother but being an aunt by relation or by choice is awesome. I had some crazy southern aunts who supported me and gave me perspective that my mother sometimes didn't have. Aunts do some important mothering as well. - From a mother named Martha

I would put pictures my kids made in kindergarten. At that time their concept of family was the same as their concept of love. - From a motehr for 18 years named Maria

I would put a special sort of sleeping area where mothers could sleep without interruption, perhaps a special headset would play tapes allowing them to believe that all is well with their children. Also an area where teenagers can sleep through their teen years and awake, like sleeping beauties on their 21st birthdays, fully ready to participate in life, having slept through those traumatic teen years safely. - From a mother for 39 years named sleepless

I would put letters from my son and a shawl he bought me in India. - from a mother for 19 years named Eva

I would put a clock because I am always racing against it, lagging behind, checking milestones, not having enough of it. Or a big role of electrical tape for the mouth of those perfect strangers with unsolicited advice/ criticisms. And if you wanted something more sentimental a video of my daughter running toward the viewer with that amazing smile ready to give you her hardest embrace. - from a mother for 13 and 1/2 years named Stella

For more info on the museum of motherhood go to www.MOMmuseum.org

IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT CHOICE ANYMORE

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Portfolios now on sale! Monkey Business: The First 10 Years includes limited editions of our first 16 posters: For more info posters@ggontour.com

Feminists Are Funny: Gay Pride Edition

Watch us at Lincoln Center's Target Free Thursday's June 16, 2011. "Feminists Are Funny: Gay Pride Edition" with Aphra Behn, Josephine Baker, Edith Evans and Eva Le Gallienne!

The F Factor: Female artists of The Bahamas

Wanted to share this article from The Nassau Gardian by Sonia Farmer about the F Factor exhibit:

"...the dynamic exhibition “The F Factor: Female Artists of The Bahamas” opened at The D’Aguilar Art Foundation, showcasing work in a wide range of media from 24 established and practicing female artists based in The Bahamas.

For curator Holly Parotti, the show is a culmination of experiences that she and her contemporaries have faced over the years — from exclusion to outward sexism — both as artists and simply just as women.

The show itself is even drawn from extensive Bahamian collections in the care of two women, Dawn Davis and Saskia D’Aguilar. Viewers may even be pleasantly surprised to find a piece each by both of these powerful women alongside the work by female artists they supported and promoted through their collecting.

Parotti was inspired by the spirit of the Guerrilla Girls, a group of anonymous female artists, formed in New York City, that addresses sexism through powerful — and some may say antagonist — artwork, especially sexism in the art world itself.

“Collecting the work from this group, I asked myself, what were these women thinking when they decided to become an artist and to really put that into their perspective in life?” Parotti says.

“I think it’s a conversation to have with the male and female artists in this community, to ask when did you decide to become an artist? What was going on in your life? Were you raising a family? Were you getting married? It’s that whole part of Bahamian culture of what happens in a young woman’s life that she makes those decisions that could take her one way or another, based on the pressures that may be put on her from whatever sources.”

Read more here: http://www.thenassauguardian.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11995&Itemid=59

Calling All Alaska Native Artists!

The Alaska Native Heritage Center announces an exciting opportunity for Alaska Native writers and other artists. Alaska Native Playwrights Project (ANPP) seeks to identify, teach and nurture Alaska Native playwrights and to establish a repertoire of uniquely Alaska Native plays derived from the rich oral tradition of Alaska’s indigenous cultures. Last year’s initial cohort completed nine plays, all of which received readings at Cyrano’s Playhouse to launch Anchorage’s Alaska Native American Indian Heritage Month celebration. Subsequently, three of the plays were included in the Play Lab of the 2011 Last Frontier Theatre Conference in Valdez, AK, and two were invited to the Native Voices Playwrights Retreat and 13th Festival of Plays, with readings at LaJolla Playhouse in San Diego and the Autry National Center in Los Angeles. Now, they are recruiting our next cohort of ten Alaska Native artists from across the state for a year-long mentorship. Call for Participants, Artist Application and FAQ Sheet are available online at www.alaskanative.net.

For more information: Email ebourgeois@alaskanative.net or call (907) 330-8057.

The deadline for artist applications is August 31, 2011.

Go bananas Alaskan women in theatre!

Women's Caucus for Art exhibit "Man as Object, Reversing the Gaze"

Our poster My Fellow Californians was selected by the juror Tanya Augsburg, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Liberal Studies (Creative Arts and Humanities), at San Francisco State University, for inclusion in the Man as Object, Reversing the Gaze, an exhibition to be held at SOMArts Cultural Center, 934 Brannan Street, San Francisco from November 4 – 26, 2011.

About the Women’s Caucus for Art

The Women's Caucus for Art (WCA) is the leading national organization for women in the visual arts professions. Founded in 1972, it has 27 chapters across the country and is an affiliate society of the College Art Association. WCA is dedicated to the cultural, aesthetic and economic value of women’s art. If you are not already a member, we invite you to join a WCA chapter so you can participate in an activist community of women artists. Visit www.nationalwca.org.

Have a Feminist 4th!

Happy 4th of July to all feminists! Here is our favorite video of Grucci fireworks over Lady Liberty in New York City Harbor. Enjoy and have a safe and happy 4th of July!

xxxGuerrilla Girls On Tour!

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