Goroyesque

When I say 'was raised by wolves', I count this woman as one of them.  Her name is Maria, and she is my paternal grandmother. Her family was from Paros island, if I am not mistaken, and she met my grandfather, a refugee from Asia Minor, and spent the rest of their lives together. They were a beautiful couple. I was more connected to him, than to her; he held me in his arms and told me stories whil e we ate watermelon from his garden, while she would tell me that there are children-vore monsters right outside their house so that I stay put. As I transitioned from girlhood to womanhood, she became more and more threatening: in her eyes, I was too fat, too clumsy, too opinionated, too not-ladylike--everything was wrong, and, worst thing of all, she said I kind of looked like her, but there I was, wasting the good genes by not sewing my lips shut. 'Look at my waistline in this photo... Better than yours, and I even had had three childbirths at this point!'. Terrible really...

[Το κείμενό μου σχετικά με την κουλτούρα του βιασμού όπως αναδημοσιεύτηκε στα Ενθέματα της Αυγής, χθες 13/9/2020. Με προσθήκες και μία επισήμανση σχετικά με το νόμισμα των δύο ευρώ το οποίο αλλάζει χέρια σχεδόν όσο συχνά αντιμετωπίζουμε τις εκφράσεις της σεξουαλικής βίας:]  [Σε αγκύλες οι προσθήκες:] * Η κουλτούρα του βιασμού δεν επιχειρεί απλώς να δημιουργήσει εγκλήματα που δεν τιμωρούνται και παραβιάσεις του προσωπικού και συναισθηματικού μας κόσμου που κανονικοποιούνται. Η κουλτούρα του βιασμού επιχειρεί και επιτυγχάνει να ιεραρχήσει τα σώματά μας, την απόλαυση, την ελευθερία και την έλλειψη αυτής: τον φόβο. Η κουλτούρα του βιασμού δεν υπάρχει απομονωμένη σε ένα reality show, σε ένα κανάλι, σε μία περιοχή της Ελλάδας, ή σε μία χώρα. Η κουλτούρα του βιασμού είναι το απόλυτο όργανο εμφυλοποίησης. Και είναι παντού. Δε μιλάμε πλέον για το «έγκλημα του βιασμού» – μόνο — αλλά για την «κουλτούρα του βιασμού», όχι μόνο γιατί το νομ...

Things NOT to do when criticising Trump: —Make fun of his body (body-shaming), incl. —making fun of his fatness, present him in illustrations as fatter than in real life as if this is a sign of evil, or in any way related to what is wrong about him (fatphobia) —Make fun of the size of his penis (" It Uses the [deeply patriarchal and toxic] Idea That Someone Isn’t ‘Manly Enough’ As an Insult ," is transphobic, and body essentialism: JUST STOP.) —Make fun of his  small hands (wtf? Can we all take a moment to see this one stems from the popular idea that size of hands reflects size of penis? It's also transphobic. See above. STOP.) —Make fun of his ability to have sex, whether he has sex, or what kind of sex he has p r o v i d e d  i t  i s  c o n s e n s u a l (misses the point, and decentres the actual issue here: the rape/sexual assault allegations & his openly rapey ideology) —Say "Pussy grabs back": What is it that we are grabbing exactly? (Rape Cultu...

Femme Maison  by  Louise Bourgeois My mum once funnily said something about me eventually getting married and having kids (in the future) when I was 17. I remember I stopped all things, and had a deadly serious discussion with her about this, explained thoroughly she is not allowed to say anything of this sort EVER, and that this kind of rhetoric has contributed to the oppression and misery of billions of women/enbies/trans men, *including herself*.  Not only that, but she was also to discourage other family members fr om doing it to me/others. It worked beautifully . On the other hand, women face hurtful valorisations on both edges of this: 'X is awesome for not having kids' is another way of dehumanising them—saying their value comes from something outside of just being themselves, and fulfilling their humanity in the best possible way. Having said that, I understand why we need to celebrate childless witches as a counter-paradigm of what is a very real and oppressi...

Σήμερα, εργατική πρωτομαγιά, σκέφτομαι, θυμάμαι, συγκινούμαι, αναγνωρίζω, θυμώνω, κι ευχαριστώ. Σκέφτομαι  τη μητέρα μου που δε θεωρούσε επιλογή το να μη μάθουμε από δύο ξένες γλώσσες, αλλά το να δουλεύει δύο οχτάωρες δουλειές για να μας το προσφέρει. Τη σκέφτομαι που θα γυρνούσε μετά από δύο οχτάωρες βάρδιες για να στήσει ένα αυτοσχέδιο θρανίο και να καλύψει όλες τις ώρες διδασκαλίας που χάθηκαν — σκέφτομαι κι εμένα με πυρετό να παραπονιέμαι. Σκέφτομαι και τη μητέρα της που έκανε το ίδιο. Σκέφτομαι τη γιαγιά μου που όταν της λένε ότι έχει "βασιλικό όνομα", αυτή απαντάει πως "εμείς δεν πλουτίσαμε σε βάρος άλλων". Θυμάμαι  να απορώ με τα άλλα παιδιά στην κατασκήνωση που με φώναζαν "πλουσιόπαιδο" και να θυμώνω. Θυμάμαι να έρχεται επίσκεψη η μητέρα μου και να της ζητάω να πει στα άλλα παιδιά πως δεν είναι έτσι, κι αυτή να χαμογελάει και να απαντάει "μα δε σου λείπει τίτοπα". Κι είχε δίκιο — με είχε περιλούσει με μία επίφαση αταξικότητας, ...

'[...] Danaë's rape scene is also a popular theme: imprisoned in a tower of bronze (strong) by her mortal father she gets raped by Zeus, this time turned into golden (stronger!) rain. Nothing here condemns, or even suggests rape. Even in theory, one would find it hard to conceive any representation of rape that would so eye-popping-ly erase rape compared to turning the rapist into a beautiful golden stream that runs between the legs of a naked, beauteous, young woman who is clearly 'aroused' i . Apart from a woman locked inside by one man, and invaded by another, she might also be the archetypical, quintessential ' not-if-she-enjoyed-it ' go-to reference, and she is joined there by descendant filmic variations like Gone With The Wind 's (Victor Fleming, USA, 1939) Scarlett (Vivien Leigh), Lust, Caution 's ( Se, jie ) (Ang Lee, USA, Chine, Taiwan, 2007) Wong Chia Chi (Wei Tang); most controversially met in Straw Dogs (Sam Peckinpah, USA, UK, 1971); ...

'I've chosen, Grace. I've chosen you...Tonight we free ourselves of Dogville!' i he says, as he begins to thrust his body on top of her. Grace (Nicole Kidman) seems motherly, comforting, but quietly undeterred in her position; she speaks quietly, but her words are sonorous when she womansplains[sic] ii that '[…]it would be so beautiful, but, from the point of view of our love, so completely wrong'. Being consent-illiterate, and having ignored her non-verbal cues thus far (she doesn't kiss back, does not react to his touch), he is now forced to see what she is saying. It cannot be ignored: ' We were to meet in freedom ' , she concludes. And he, reluctantly, stops. So, hey , freedom is somewhere and is not there . It is a place where people meet , and somewhere her in particular and Tom 'were to meet'. Lovers do not meet in unfree places: rapists and victims do. Not only does she theorise freedom as a place that is not there, and th...