With Greece making the headlines for its economic woes, I was inspired to go on the hunt for modern female talent from the birthplace of democracy and give it some positive attention. Some of my picks have been around awhile, some are fresh on the scene. They come from sculpture, photography, fashion, jewelry, and of course there’s that one certain Greek media mogul who’s in a class of her own. Also check out TEDxAthens and the accomplishments of Katerina Aifantis who at 24 has already been called a rising star with the potential to be a world class scientist. Then on the lighter side is Greece is for Lovers worth checking out for their fun, cheeky design products.
70 year old Greek American "site-specific" architectural sculpture artist, Athena Tacha was born in Larissa, Greece 1936, and is the subject of a retrospective in Thessaloniki right now. The Oberlin Univesity websites calls her one of the initiators of , a significant shift in attitude that brought "land art" into a social context and says that she's been a finalist in nearly 150 national and international competitions.
Photographer, Venia Bechrakis, (from the lead photo of this post) is a native of Athens and received her MFA at NYU. "Whether in a grocery store, the airport, the subway or on a Manhattan street, the artist’s portraits remind us of women’s work and that ever-tenuous balance between one’s private and public life." -Holly Block, Director Bronx Museum for the Arts
Mary Katrantzou , fashion designer from Athens "is among the second wave of breakout stars of the digital print revolution that has been sweeping London." - Style.com
Mary Katrantzou
Alexandra Bletsas' prize-winning cityscape rings
I plucked Aspa Gutmeni's post-it note interior design off the Cloroflot site. She is the leader and sole female designer at a firm called 3ducci (.com) out of Athens.
And from an exhibit in Holland where eleven Greek jewelry designers showed their work, I've plucked the following 'gems': 1.) Marina Zachou roses and thorns bracelet....
and this screenshot taken from the Greek jewelry design site MyPrecious.gr
Greek-American Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post at 24
*lead photo: dress by textile designer marit fujiwara, recent graduate of Chelsea College of Art and Design
I asked a handful of thought leaders about the top women in sustainability. Answers came from marketing expert and author of “Don’t think Pink” (Andrea Learned), the award-winning social entrepreneur and innovation strategist who launched the Creative Graduate Prize and now New Frontiers (Melissa Sterry), and an agency CEO who left it all to better the world, giving inspiring TED talks and most recently launching a plan of action in the form of ifwerantheworld.com defn worth a look (Cindy Gallop) — Here’s what they said:
My definition of sustainability is an approach which acknowledges and addresses both environmental and social challenges using informed, intelligent, innovative, interdisciplinary and inspired solutions. Truly sustainable concepts are developed when the interactions between humans and their environment are fully understood. While many goods and services are labelled ‘sustainable’, ‘green’ or ‘environmentally-friendly’, in reality few actually are, some are the result of deliberate greenwashing, others are the result of a lack of research and due diligence in the design process.
The best design solutions are built on the most robust research, not off the back of cliches and assumptions. But at a time when most investors are focused on ventures that can potentially provide a quick return, significant R&D will be compromised. Until such time as the international investing community acknowledges the fact that stable and ‘sustainable’ future markets will be built engaging pioneering and at times radically innovative ideas that have been carefully crafted to meet both society’s existing and future needs, the world’s most promising sustainable innovators will find the tide is against them.
2) Why does it matter?
It matters because if we don’t act now and act to the very best of our ability, our species may not walk this Earth by 2150. (read the rest of Melissa’s passionate and articulate answer after the jump.)
3) Name 1-3 women on the forefront of this issue?
Naming just one or two is difficult but three inspirational women from the UK are:
1.) Multidisciplinary scientist Dr. Rachel Armstrong , a senior research fellow at University College London exploring the potential of living architecture and self-repairing buildings with their own metabolisms
2.) Joanna Yarrow, one of the UK’s most senior green living experts and a presenter, broadcaster, journalist, writer and founder of sustainability consultancy Beyond Green.
Joanna Yarrow
3.) Servane Mouazan -- founder of Ogunte -- the UK’s foremost organization for women leading the Social Economy.
All three are working hard to develop a blueprint for a sustainable society -- all thinkers and doers with the creativity, commitment and courage to throw out the rulebook and set out on a journey to find the new frontiers. Often facing adversity and opposition to their ideas, these three women innovate their way around the obstacles, no matter how overwhelming or great they may be.
4) An insight on the future and advice for the female creative entrepreneur.
My insight -- the future isn’t going to be easy, whichever way you look at it, the challenges are enormous. My advice -- never under-estimate the value of the role you have to play in creating a better future.
5) One sustainable product or service you love or that caught your eye.
The Aptera epitomizes what sustainable innovation is all about. The Aptera is uber efficient -- achieving 300 miles or more to the gallon through minimized air resistance and drag, as a result of having a bullet-shaped body and three wheels, not four. The vehicle has interior and exterior LED lighting and a solar assisted climate control system. The Aptera also features recycled materials and comes in both electric and hybrid versions, achieving a top speed of 90mph and 0-60 in around 10 seconds. While it’s the most sustainable vehicle coming to market in the foreseeable future, it’s founders have pledged to continuously improve the sustainability of the vehicle as more innovations become available to them. Beyond it’s environmental credentials the vehicle is iconically beautiful and a design classic destined for the history books. My only regret about The Aptera is I wont be able to drive one in the UK any time soon.
To pursue a state of life/work in ways that mean what you do now will flourish and develop without taking away the resources that others, in future generations, will need to do the same. I love the awareness raised by something Paul Hawken wrote – there is a difference between “growing” and “developing.” Developing/development is the sustainable approach.
2) Why does it matter?
It matters because we’ve hit a brick wall – the perfect storm of bad economy, huge environmental problems due to waste of resources, and an emerging more relational, less linear (all about me) way of thinking by citizens. People are starting to face the facts that endless growth and consumerism for the sake of it doesn’t really feed and nourish our daily lives – and greatly harms the environment. If it continues, we will actually leave hugely negative effects for our children and grandchildren to deal with. Now – that’s a realization to contend with!
3) Women on the forefront:
Eileen Fisher – Fisher and the women’s apparel company she launched in 1984 have been successfully (and fairly quietly) operating with a sustainable approach. The materials and supply chains used in manufacturing her clothing and the way the company treats employees and contributes more broadly to women’s empowerment has become what I’d call “best practices” long before “sustainable” or “socially responsible” were trendy terms.
Joyce LaValle – Some have heard or read about Ray C. Anderson, CEO of Interface Inc., and his evolution toward sustainability (he is now considered a pioneer in the “movement”). LaValle is the former Senior Vice President of that company and is credited for originally inspiring Anderson’s vision on the topic. She also co-founded the Women’s Network for a Sustainable Future, which should get more notice (in my opinion) because it brings sustainability thought leaders and best cases to light so conventional businesses might learn (and it is not just about and “for women”).
Kira Gould – By way of the interviews conducted and synthesized in Women in Green, the book she co-authored with Lance Hosey,Gould’s influence has been key in my personal move to study and promote the concepts of sustainable business development. She is an architect and the director of communications for McDonough + Partners (founded by another quite recognized sustainability pioneer/author, Bill McDonough).
4) An insight on the future and advice for the female creative entrepreneur
Businesses can do well and still “do good” with regard to people, planet and profit – the oft-mentioned socially responsible, “triple bottom line.” The future is already here in that consumers have become very savvy and are much more intentional/deliberate in their buying. Businesses, however, have been slow to catch on to that. So, entrepreneurs that authentically believe and commit to the journey toward more sustainable business practices – in materials, supply chain, human resources, community support, energy use and so on – will have a significant advantage. Women, in particular, have a natural tendency toward a more holistic perspective. “Just business” really doesn’t exist, because they naturally know there’s a lot more to it.
I am at a conference right now called RethinkHer in Barcelona and just had a long chat with Marti Barletta arguably the queen of marketing to women. I tweeted about her on Friday after finding her Twitter feed. In my tweet, I thanked her for her first book, aptly named, Marketing to Women, for getting me through some tough opposition when I was arguing at agencies to take women just a bit more seriously as a market force and as an arbiter of consumer decision making. It made me feel less alone in the all male creative wilderness to have her powerful proof at my fingertips.
But today, in light of my mission with WWM, I asked her, blue sky, to come up with some market opportunities out there that are being neglected. After all that exposure to the behemoth corporations and the female consumer challenge, I knew some creative ideas of her own must be percolating under the surface. After a conversation about everything from the follies of the European car companies (she feels the Asian car makers do the best job of understanding female values) to her advice to companies to make fewer jokey ads that don’t relate to women — we got to her wonderful off the cuff insights.
Her latest book, Prime Time Women focuses on the 50+ woman and she had this in mind when she answered.
Adult camps – ‘I would love to go back to college. Study art history, geology.. but I can´t go back during the day because I have a business – so a two week adult camp to do the things I want to do but can´t all the time would be great. I´m interested in people so Id like it to be a social thing that includes fitness and learning.
A fashionable fashion brand for size 14+ women – ‘I know it exists but nothing is flattering. Most of these brands, take Eileen Fisher, you end up looking like a rumpled mess with the fabrics they use and the cuts of the jackets. I’m convinced that the fashion industry doesn’t care about their customers. Fashion brands only care what the other fashion houses think of them and what Vogue thinks of them. If they want to be the artistes of the world, great, but I thought they wanted to sell to customers. Isn’t fashion a business after all?’
Home Design that considers reality - ‘It’s still too much about form and not enough about function. The command center of the house is the kitchen. Why isn’t there a nice big wide desk and lots of places to put things. The woman has to watch the stove, the kids, do her work, have a computer and her files nearby. Why is there only this tiny little desk and chair. Also there are never nearly enough plugs in a house.’
I thought these insights were just fantastic. And her presentation later in the day was thoroughly engaging and right on the money. In fact, there were a lot of presentations that were full of fresh information. I was scribbling like mad. Stay tuned for another post with all the tidbits and insights from the whole days event including Marti’s.
Marti Barletta’s Chicago-based company is called TrendSight.
I haven’t been to fashion week since 2005. And that was after more than ten years of attending the New York shows. The biggest reason for stopping: I was bored. Mostly the fashion press is what really pushed me over the edge. But now I realize, fashion is a little bit like god and religion. I believe. But inundate me with too much proselytizing and I forget the main act. In other words, whimsical and masterful fashion design is something truly beautiful and even more so when everyone sort of shuts up, folds their hands in their lap, and looks on in respectful silence at the mastery of the production.
To see some really funny cool fashion week coverage in London (lets face it, this is mostly London) check out Amelia’s magazine. Reminds me a little bit of vintage Girlonthestreet.
1947 Vogue, one that I own, still wrapped in its plastic, somewhere in storage.
Half a review of the documentary “September Issue.” Half a review of how differently I see things now from 15 years ago.
I wrote my thesis on Vogue magazine. Up there in that old Vogue library on the top floor of the former Condé Nast building, I lived and dreamed in the pages of Horst P Horst and Man Ray’s dramatic lighting, in the whimsical pithy fashion prose of Diana Vreeland with her face painting and pony fantasyland. From Edna Woolman Chase’s days of the corset to WWII fabric shortages, from the New Look to Grace Mirabella’s power suit, I was fascinated.
But just as Anna Wintour said in the tedious bedraggled documentary, September Issue, some are not let in. But far from making me envious and mournful of all those lost years not spent at Vogue, I was ultimately empowered by fate. I thought about all of the broken hearts and broken spirits of the young girls who went there full of dreams and came out beaten and diminished and possibly anorexic and I wondered, ‘what do you do with that?’
If a girl has any sense (but who does at 21? And why should she?), she’d never get wrapped up in the first place. She pursues her dream whatever it may be, undaunted. Hopefully it’s something noble, helping mankind, that sort of thing, but if not noble, something personal, something that takes discipline, dedication, some measure of purity of intent.
Now that we’ve opened up a whole new platform for people to create and be heard without any golden gates barring entry, what will become of Vogue’s primacy? Or maybe we should be looking at the real monster these days - the ghastly tasteless celebrity circus with its gobs of drooping collagen-implanted lips and tight foreheads with forced squirrel eyes. That whole ordeal makes Vogue look like Glenda the Good Witch — or maybe Hollywood and Us magazine are so vulgar and absurd that it makes you yearn for a high priestess arbiter of taste again, the kind they had in the old days, the kind that, well, it seems Grace Coddington carries with her in her disappointed expression looking out over the Tuileries on a grey Paris day. ‘Maybe I’m just a romantic’ she muses, and you feel sad for her, like you want to hug her, all those lovely frocks and dreams on glossy pages and for what? Surely there is something more she can do with it all. If she couldn’t then, she can now. Create a book of all the fantasies in her head without Anna’s veto power. Or costume a ballet or an opera like Chanel, Picasso or Cocteau. Or move to a new medium and have an exhibit of her own work, her own vision, without the dress price tags. Write a book… It’s ironic that her face in that scene, the only one that resonated for me, reminds me of all the women and girls out there I want to promote, applaud, and support. A spirit that needs saving.
There’s something lost and something gained in every generation. I’d take autonomy and freedom of expression any day. Let the curators and editors find their artists and let the artists find their curators and editors among the millions of profiles and networks and shouting voices out there, politics and pecking order be damned.
Some pretty cool women involved in New Frontiers. Launching today.
Rachel Amstrong
Dr. Rachel Armstrong is a Senior TED Fellow working on building a living building, and she’s a teaching Fellow at the Bartlett School of Architecture. She’s also a science fiction author – and a beautiful fairy.
Leonora Oppenheim focuses on turning information into conversation in public spaces with her company, Elio Studio.
Tuba Kocatürk wrote what must be a little fluffy beach read about building and technology. It’s called Virtual Futures for Design, Construction and Procurement. Pick it up after you finish your next Dan Brown or Darwin’s Origin of the Species.
Then there’s Lorna Walker, Dr. Vicky Lofthouse, Angharad Thomas, Dr. Angela Lee, Beth Perry, Linda Relph Knight, and Rachel Cooper – editor at Design Journal, author of The Design Experience, and so on. All of them are supremely intelligent beings and highly contributive to the initiative for a more sustainable world. New Frontiers should be an exciting new addition to the sustainability playing field, headquartered in Manchester (as they point out, home of the first industrial revolution) and with the support of NGOs, Universities, and some of the world’s best thinkers in support of the endeavour.
“The brainchild of futurologist and design scientist Melissa Sterry and developed in
partnership with environmental scientist Matt Prescott, NEW FRONTIERS is working
with leading universities, professional institutions, NGOs, government agencies and
pioneering global brands to embed a strong understanding of sustainability; form new
collaborations; and promote the best innovation for this new and fast-moving sector.”
How can people who’ve honed their skills with passion and vision contribute to the next phase of humanity instead of say, make another KFC ad? What we do now will determine our future.
History is not a continuum. Now’s a time when history is showing its joints and bending. But which way?
I read this poston BBHLabs and I think a lot of people agree that ad agencies are no longer necessary but we’re all afraid because we’ll all be out of work (well I haven’t been at an ad agency since 2006 but they are still a big part of my life) if we admit that everything we’re doing now can not be stuffed under the umbrella of ad agency. Agency means facilitator. We need a collective of people that work together to facilitate, mediate when companies fall into a rut, or find they have a problem they can’t solve internally. Managers of development. Managers of story. Managers of communication. That is not exactly an advertisement agency. Ads are great (for the sake of argument). Maybe we’ll always have ads. And there will be teams that make them. But I can imagine ad-making being more what it was in the old days: A copy guy and a designer type tweaking away at the typeface and the design of the thing, some ad-tastic team making more of those funny clever Superbowl ads. Ha ha, what a gas! But those guys come later. Waaay later in the process. So lets put ‘ads’ over there for now.
So lets look at what agencies have tried to do the last few years. They’ve tried to pretend they are movie producers, product designers, art curators, publicists, gurus of the future, pundits, yet they still maintain a media buying dept, a media planning department, a ‘creative’ department focusing on those awards, brand planners ad testing and gluing up those research holes — and the account people tap tap tapping away at their cubicles. I think it’s pretty bombastic to claim to do it all and yet still be an AD agency. It’s hard to continue along a path where part of your job is to convince the client they don’t know their business yet you don’t really take the time to step into their shoes in any real way and think beyond the old model. Most ad agencies ARE the old model but they pretend not to be. How can they tell their client to do something that they’re not even doing themselves: REALLY getting their grubby fingers off the old rule book and throwing that thing out.
Based on what I’ve done when I have felt most useful at an agency (when I’ve convinced management to let me do my thing), this is what I imagine we could do if we were to start fresh. It would go something like this:
Workshop the client. Act as therapist, teacher, nurturer. Facilitate them telling YOU about the company they work for. Clock in real hours understanding what it’s like to be in THEIR skin and go to work every day. Why do they do what they do? Have they thought about it? Maybe yes, maybe no.
Stimulate the clients imagination. The VP of sales, the receptionist, the sales team, the CFO, the CEO, the guy or gal who does payroll, the brand manager, the engineers, the guys in operations, shipping, you get the picture, get people from top, bottom, side to side to come in and roll up their sleeves in smallish groups cutting through hierarchy. Be disarming. Take the corporate speak out of the picture. Find out whats under the surface. Do an ethnography on THEM, the CLIENT. After all, its them that you are helping and one day you’ll be gone. You are not creating an ad for them, you are making their business better.
Consumer ethnography. Who’s their target? Great. Is that all? Are you sure? Is that really the target? The only target? Now that you’ve workshopped the hell out of the client, you probably can respond to this with authority. Now go out there and be a part of the target for your dear client and witness without prejudice how people think and behave surrounding the brand, the category (or categories), the lifestyle surrounding that category, and insights into culture that at first glance seem to have NOTHING to do with the category or the brand but are so important in society that they might be a part of the brand that you never before imagined. Like social networking. Like multitasking. When those were big surprises way back when. Go in without arrogance and see what you didn’t already know. Don’t assume because it makes an ass out of you and me.
Strategy Time. Well you’ve been doing it all along, haven’t you if you’ve been THIS involved and this much not a bullshit artist. You now know: your client is this. Your consumer is that. Throw out the rule book that says you have to write a unique selling proposition, that big idea one sentence thing that will determine the 360 approach of the brand blah blah blah. Those are for stable cultures and certain times. THIS IS NOT ONE OF THEM. Does your mom have a unique selling proposition? Does your best friend? Brand is the word for the public image of a company. The associations. These associations are part intangible, emotional and part functional. The company is the main thing here; What does it do for people. Why do they buy it. Why do they need it. Why do they trust it. And once you determine that, have it chat away about the things its best at. Like a person. Dear Brand: be yourself. Know who you want to talk to about it and be articulate! Be fun. Be engaging. But don’t be so fixed and immutable for crissakes.
Make. I think you have to be an entrepreneur to be doing this job now. Not just a spin doctor. You have to be a problem solver because superfluous businesses are liable to die. You’ve sussed out the problem, challenge, opportunity. And since you’re not an ad agency, the solution could be to make a new product or service, a movie, get into a different business that nobody ever thought of. One that fits strategically. One that works operationally. One that solves other company problems and considers revenue, not just the consulting fee you pocket until the next pitch. A manager to manage the creative capital and developmental aspect of a business in conjunction with operations, management, sales, and distribution. (or similar, of course, depending on the business we’re talking about).
Chat away. What am I doing? I’m blogging. A few minutes ago, I was tweeting. A few minutes before that I was in the office kitchen brainstorming. Earlier today I was on the phone with the U.K. Yesterday I was on Huffington Post commenting. This morning I was texting, Facebooking, and emailing an invitation to Mexican night at my house. And I was checking out the FB groups I’ve recently joined. My boyfriend, meanwhile, is making a movie about his experience in Barcelona and he’s climbing over fences to take pictures of areas people don’t normally get to see. He’s a location scout. I am (he is, you are) communicating, spreading, reading, participating, commenting. The company you work with needs to all of that too. All products are content and content is ever flowing. Chat away. Strategically.
Revise, repeat. A woman’s work is never done. And a brand is never done. An agency with the smorgasbord of stories and storytelling techniques at its fingertips, or wily enough to hunt them down, is what a company needs as an advocate to help them find the right venue for communicating and the right products and services to offer.
Ideas and Design on my radar right now. An eclectic bunch.
cutaway vase by Polish designer Edyta Cieloch
Dr. Afsaneh Rabiei of Iran, awarded a CAREER award in 2003 by the National Science Foundation, is the inventor of a new tough metal foam material that will have a huge impact on life saving devices such as car bumpers. "inserting two pieces of her composite metal foam behind the bumper of a car traveling 28 mph, the impact would feel the same to passengers as impact traveling at only 5 mph"-LiveScience.com
Swedish designers Sofia Lagerkvist, Anna Lindgren and Charlotte von der Lancken make up "Front Design" on StylePark.com (and everywhere else!)
Capsters: Dutch designer Cindy Van Den Bremen invented an elastic flexible sports hijab that guards against harsh noises. The product, approved by an Imam and now with worldwide sales, addresses complex aesthetic, social, and religious issues where they intersect in the real world.
Lynn Jackson's art on Mocoloco
Yin Xiuzhen. Portable City: Melbourne, 2009 from her "Portable Cities" series on Space & Culture.org
Frog Design's blog posting on how James Cameron and Steve Jobs vision of the future might not be the best or most cutting edge citing articles by Annalee Newitz (below)
Dr. Annalee Newitz of Technosploitation and now of Gawker Media's io9.com. An academic-cum-journalist, she writes kick ass cultural criticism like "When Are White People Going to Stop Making Movies Like Avatar" quoted on the Frog Design blog entry cited above.
Frozen Lamp from Frozen series by Wieki Somers of Rotterdam. Also love her "mattress stone."
GIRL DRIVE - FEMINISM ACROSS AMERICA - Nona Willis Aronowitz (left) pictured here with her co-author the photographer Emma Bee Bernstein (right) who has died since the book's publication. photo credit: Lucy Radtke, 2007.
Girl Drive, a project where two young college grads, friends, get in a car and travel around America taking the temperature of contemporary feminism. The book came out in October of 2009. I read about it in my meandering through the world of creative women. I wanted to learn more about these two girls whose mothers were second-wave feminists. What motivated their desire to follow up on their mothers quest? What exactly has become of feminism in the post millennial world of ‘girl power’ and the downplaying of gender polemics? Do we need feminism? What is it? Everyone disagrees. (Even Nona and I on some counts as you’ll see from our lively good vs. evil debate on porn!)
Me: Are you available to talk? I know you were in Brazil. I just got back from Switzerland myself.
Nona Aronowitz: Sure! As a matter of fact.
Me: Okay lets do it. I’m going to make a cup of coffee first.
Nona: No prob, I will be here.
Me: Okay, I’m back. So this is what I know – you drove around the country interviewing women who are doing amazing, great, or interesting things. Your mother was a known feminist. That’s about it!
Nona: haha, ok, well the description of the project is here. Emma was my co-author. The book came out in October.
Me: It sounds like it should be a documentary. Is it / will it be?
Nona: As a matter of fact, I’m trying! We have about a week and a half’s worth of footage but in order for it to be a real documentary, I think the story would have to change a bit since Emma’s not around. I’m kind of bummed that we never got a chance to make it into a film from the beginning but I also think that would have changed some women’s answers, or their willingness to participate.
(Emma died at the end of 2008. She committed suicide. I didn’t know this. It took me aback and I asked as few questions as I could and then *read more about Emma who seemed to be extremely intelligent, inquisitive, and full of life. A terrible unexpected aspect of the Girl-Drive story).
Emma Bee Bernstein, co-creator of Girl Drive, self-portrait crouching with plaster wall, 2006
Me: I saw that you wrote your thesis on seventies porn and since porn is so prevalent these days my first thought is to ask what thought of Ariel Levy’s book from a few years back, “Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture.”
Nona: I do agree with Levy’s point that Girls Gone Wild and phenomena like that is often false consciousness, that women who do that don’t have the self-reflection to realize why they are having fun or why that might be empowerment BUT I think she takes some agency away from women, who in my opinion might be doing that (showing their breasts at Mardi Gras, etc) in reaction to a puritanical, virgin/whore culture and just don’t have the space to create their own sexual reality without indulging men’s fantasies. Young women aren’t taught that they’re allowed to discover what turns THEM on.
Women know they want to be sexual but the models of sexuality are completely polarized and I don’t think Levy makes that clear enough. She sort of blames women and condescends a little bit, rather than realizing that these women are at the hands of these black-and-white depictions of sexuality.
Me: So girls are using what’s available to express their sexuality but since they are young, are not yet self-aware and can’t really protect themselves?
Nona: yeah, I mean if you weren’t raised in a city or family that was open and creative and nuanced about sexuality, of course you’re going to fall into the slut or prude dichotomy. It’s not about experience, it’s about the stuff that’s been drilled into us since birth as Americans.
Me: Do you think it’s unique to America? I live in Europe and teen girls / college age girls here are as flagrant, show their body in a way that is imitative of the traditional image of a prostitute or stripper, just like they do in America. Just like they do on MTV. America has had a huge influence on European teens. In this generation, it seems they are no different.
Nona: Right, but there it’s imitative, it’s a culture that was spawned here. It’s a thing that can only spring from sexual repression. It’s a reaction.
Me: What was your general thesis about porn in your college paper? What about the porn industry?
Nona: Feminist porn is like any other porn, it just shows women enjoying themselves.
Me: Do you think porn is okay? if so, why? What is feminist porn?
Nona: I have no problem with porn, per se, but most porn doesn’t show women having a good time. (She names a few feminist porn filmmakers and pornographers: Tristan Taormino, Nina Hartley, Susie Bright, feminist porn site “nofauxx”.)
Me: Right, I’ve heard of Susie Bright. But how may women, other than people in gender studies courses know about her?
Nona: Violet Blue is another feminist pornographer, Rachel Kramer Bussel writes feminist erotica…
Me: I just think it’s more art than mass turn on.
Nona: Well first of all, Nina Hartley, Tristan Taormino, and Violet Blue are very mainstream. We interviewed a woman on our trip who makes a case for feminist porn. Her mom runs a porn production company. The woman’s name is Rebecca Rosenfelt and this is her blog, Porn Perspectives. My thesis paper was more a social history. It wasn’t really about feminist porn.
Me: I guess I’m just interested to know your stance on porn because you wrote about it, even if you didn’t write about feminist porn. For an instant here, I just want to play devils advocate: I find that the difference between popular culture and scholarly exploration are far apart. I mean, how many people know about Susie Bright compared to Vivid Video or whats-that-channel with all the porn?
Nona: Bad porn is only a by-product of our culture’s fucked up views about sexuality and the misogyny we see in porn is only a result of this virgin-whore dichotomy. Porn can be great if the woman seems to be having a good time not distressed or bored or completely degraded.
Me: okay
Nona: I do think its dangerous to start criticizing porn and say that it all degrades women. I think it’s possible for porn to be positive both economically and narratively.
Me: You know that woman that stands around New York screaming bloody murder about porn? she used to scare the shit out of me.
Nona: haha
Me: She stands at a table with these huge mounted photographs of mutilated women in front of her. The photographs are harrowing. The pictures themselves seem like a violence on the passers-by and she yells at you if you ask her a question. Do you know who I mean? I don’t know if she’s around anymore.
Me: I just looked at what Rebecca said. She said:The industry has a potentially positive space for women stars and CEOs. I compare Jenna Jameson to Oprah and Martha Stewart all the time. She’s created an empire, and now she doesn’t even have to be in movies. Sigh. It’s hard to be journalistic here. I think this comment is ludicrous. Like having a media empire in and of itself is a good thing. Sometimes I think American ideas of success are becoming increasingly more warped. The longer I’m gone, the more I see it.
Nona: I agree that economic empowerment is part of breaking down sexism that’s one of the hardest elements of feminism to argue with but obviously it’s not the whole picture of porn or feminism or anything else.
Me: What did you learn from your trip across the country that you did not know before? Any preconceptions that were debunked?
Nona: I think I was more dogmatic about feminism and what it could encompass. I was a sheltered New York girl. I had no sense of subtlety or contradiction. I didn’t get for instance that one could be really conflicted about how their religion fits into their feminism. I also didn’t think I’d be able to relate to women who didn’t think like me – conservative women – but I could. It was startling to realize how much nuance we lose in not talking to people face to face where we can really delving into these issues rather than typecast people.
Me: Tell me about the conservative women and their viewpoints, what you experienced there.
Nona: Sure. There was one woman in particular who was training to be a midwife. We had no idea of her politics at all. We were just asking her about her work and why she does it. She said she wanted to bring power back to the woman in the birthing process, and that it was important to trust women and believe in the strength of their bodies. She showed us the trailer for “The Business of Being Born” which I think of as a very feminist movie. Then we asked her what her number one issue was, and she said she was pro-life and very religious and a 23-year-old virgin who was waiting until marriage – and she worked at a crisis pregnancy center! I was sitting here totally nodding along, and then she drops that bomb! It was a turning point for me. Here was a woman who completely didn’t agree with my politics, and I was relating to her.
Me: Did you talk to her about being pro-choice?
Nona: Yes, we talked about the separation between church and state, and discussed when it become alright for men to govern women’s bodies. From her viewpoint, they can make decisions about abortion but not about the birthing process. Essentially, I would have never even met this person if it wasn’t for Girldrive. It made me realize that although she represented some things that made my blood boil, she also clearly cared about women. Girldrive really highlighted the contradictions that can arise when you’re talking about gender issues.
Me: I think its always hard to come face to face with views different from our own, especially ones near and dear to us that we consider to be so morally clear to us, and still respect the other person. Did any of your views change as a result of your time on the road?
Nona: Not my politics, no
Me: I guess the main question I have left is what you see as the difference between second and third wave feminism. I went to a screening of the Sisters of 77. Have you ever seen that?
Nona: nope
Me: It was a documentary of the one and only government funded women’s rights conventions.
Nona: Never seen it
Me: The conference took place in Houston in 1977. In the documentary you can really see how Latina women, lesbian women, black women, white women, all of the various agendas and issues, they were all really different. There couldn’t just be one movement. I went to see the screening of the documentary in Miami in 2005 and the audience was dotted with women who had actually attended. I wrote an essay on my experience of the screening, and the audience reaction, the different generations all together in one room, for a Vanity Fair contest that I didn’t win but it was a very emotional essay for me because it was at the moment when I started to (literally) apologize for my earlier disdain for the ideas of feminism that my mom espoused which just seemed really angry and one dimensional to me at the time.
Nona: Well I’ve definitely heard of the conference. My mom wrote a really good piece about it for Rolling Stone back in the day.
Me: I used to think it was naive and pointless to wave your fist around and instead we should just get to the task of making things happen. Start our own companies. Set our own precedent. But now I realize how crucial second wave feminism was.
What do you think has happened between now and then to make women reluctant to call themselves feminists.
Nona Willis Aronowitz, feminist writer and creator of Girl Drive. photo credit: Sadye Vassil, 2008
Nona: There are a few different reasons why young women don’t relate to feminism. One is the stereotypes crafted by right-wingers; That you’re man hating, ugly, humorless, a lesbian, etc. Another big reason we heard was that feminism is a rich white academic thing–almost every person of color, or women who were otherwise marginalized, said that. The third reason why young women don’t relate to feminism is that our generation is terrified of labels–and I think this can be rectified by seeing feminism less as an identity (with rules and definitions) and more as a sensibility, and a lens.
Me: Regarding your second reason, that’s what I meant by saying that I’m not sure how the Susie Bright aesthetic (or ethic) would be an argument for porn because it seems to belong to that rich white academic thing; it isn’t really porn porn. Porn is a mammoth industry and most of it is comprised of drug addicted young women without much if any support system. (After this interview I found a few articles including this one on the Oprah site that talks about the changing tide of porn due to its growing female audience.)
Nona: I don’t think Susie Bright is going to reach mainstream porn but once ideas about sexuality changes, porn will change – hopefully. It changed in the 1970s to fit changing cultural mores.
Me: What I’m afraid of is that kids are raised on porn. They see it online very young and they then they just think that this is what sex is. Sex becomes this really false performance; It’s an MTV video meets hardcore penetration and theatrical screaming without any real intimacy what so ever. I am afraid that is our cultural convention. You say the media created Girls Gone Wild but I think they also capitalized on something that was going on, this phenomenon of seeing sex as ‘no big deal’ and engaging in sexual acts very young and without much feeling (or trying to not have much feeling) as though sex was a fun stunt of some kind and I think the cost of that is huge. Do you agree or disagree, if you disagree, how do you see it? What did you see on your road trip that contradicts or supports that.
Nona: I agree that hypersexualization of our culture is a huge problem and that both men and women shouldn’t learn about sex from boring, desensitizing porn. But I don’t think the answer is to guard our sexuality like some sort of gatekeeper–and for that matter, why does the conversation center around women? Why can’t we talk to young guys about sexuality and porn? I resent that the burden is all placed on young women when in reality young women could really benefit from being accountable and joining the conversation. (see Correction following article)
Me: Absolutely I think women should be accountable and join the conversation and that the idea of sex on film is not inherently bad. I do not however think that the porn industry promoting “boring” sex is the main problem. I do think young guys should be in on the conversation on porn. The BBC did a piece on boys addicted to Internet porn. I watched a few minutes of it and found it stomach-turning and depressing. Porn is not a woman’s issue. It’s a social issue for everyone. And something that should be discussed and is being discussed. I just want to make sure we separate the idea of sex on film from the porn industry. This conversation (the one that we’re having) is about women and empowerment and it’s important to talk about the images women see of themselves, especially young girls who are shaping their adult identity. All of what you said I think is important stuff to bring into debate.
I’m interested now in learning about a three women that inspire you from various fields.
Nona: I love Frida Kahlo–both her art and fiery personality. Women like Barbara Walters and Oriana Fallaci–who were/are tough journalists in a male-dominated field–are inspirations to me. And ever since I read a biography of Margaret Mead, I find myself looking for inspiration from her. Like, what would Margaret say?
Me: very cool. Other than writing and gender, what are some of your interests? What do you do for fun? What are some other creative goals you have?
Nona: I’ve always been obsessed with movies–both watching them and wanting to make them. I try to see as many as possible. I also really want to be able to incorporate video into my work in the future. I think films and documentaries can drive emotions and spur action in ways that non-fiction writing can’t, and I want to be able to take advantage of that. I also love traveling and probably spend half my paycheck going places. I like bike riding and going to Chicago’s outdoor music festivals in the summer, but in the winter I mostly write and hibernate. Oh, and eat! Cooking elaborate meals and going out to dinner with my partner Aaron are two of my favorite things to do–I’m kind of a wannabe foodie.
Me: I’m 36 and you are 25. Do you see any difference between women between the ages of 18 – 25 and those of us from the decade above?
Nona: That’s a huge question, but the main difference I see is the kinds of opportunities your generation had right out of school. You guys came of age in the late nineties when the economy was relatively intact, before 9/11, before mass media and so many other industries started to go bankrupt. Being a teenager and in my early twenties in the Bush era was quite disheartening, and in a sense paralyzing–I think we feel like the world is a bit more cataclysmic. Not sure if that’s specific to women, but all those factors influence feminism and activism.
Me: Oh I’d really love to hear more on this. When we got out of school in 1995 / 1996, there was a recession and jobs were scarce but I never thought about what it would be like to have Bush as president as a teenager. We had the other Bush but his stupidity was not as amplified. Anyway, you’ve done a great and original thing there with Girldrive. I’ll be sure to pick it up ASAP. Thank you for talking to me!
Correction: At the very end, the last answer Nona gives about porn, she meant to say that “in reality young MEN could really benefit from being accountable and joining the conversation.” Saying “women” was a typo.
I was happy to see that the New York Times Emerging Artists of the Decade list started with two women, Rineke Dijkstra (Netherlands) and Jessica Jackson Hutchins (US), both of whom I am unfamiliar with, so I decided to look at more of their work. One of the articles that featured Hutchin’s work had the slug, “patience is the new ambition.” I love that. It most certainly has been for me.
And then as I kept clicking I saw they listed Dana Schutz (US) and video artists, Tamy Ben-Tor (Israel) and Nathalie Djurberg (Sweden). Also Klara Liden (Sweden), Ellen Altfest (NY), Huma Bhabha (Pakistan), Cao Fei (China) , Misaki Kawai (Japan), Mary Reid Kelly (US), and Josephine Halvorson (US). How many female artists is that?
Then I decided to google ‘artists of the decade’. I looked at the Village Voice’s which were said to be the results of an informal art crowd survey. In that list arose Tacita Dean (UK) who then popped up everywhere else, Isa Genzken (Germany), also oft-mentioned, and Rachel Harrison (NY), Julie Mehretu (Ethiopia), Mary Heilmann (San Francisco), and the most famous of the lot, Cindy Sherman.
Heavy.com’s list, coming from a more street art oriented site, names Faiza Butt (Pakistan), Jean Shin (South Korea), and Swoon. The Guardian adds Maria Lassnig (Austria) and Janet Cardiff (Canada) in their 6 image slide show of art of the decade.
In 2010, the Whitney Biennial will, for the first time, be comprised by a majority of women artists. When New York magazine writer, Jerry Saltz, asked curator Gary Carrion-Murayari why he said, “I didn’t look for women artists. They were just in front of our eyes.”
Happy New Year.
Chauncey
Get Out of My Dreams. Faiza Butt.
Amoy Botanical Garden, Xiamen, April 23, 2006. Rineke Dijkstra.
El Parque Del Retiro, Madrid, July 2, 2006. Rineke Dijkstra.
"a skinny Polish girl in a lime-green bathing suit confronts the camera with a heartbreaking blend of awkwardness and studied nonchalance. Standing at the ocean's edge, she tilts her head and slips unconsciously into a classical contrapposto pose. -Metropolitan Museum website" Kolobrzeg, Poland, 1992 by Rineke Dijkstra.
Maria Lassnig. You or Me. 2008.
I find this funny, but somehow ridiculing of men, a bit humiliating, which makes it uncomfortable, which makes it funny. The Butt by Ellen Altfest. Oil on canvas.
I thought of Wyeth and then read someone else said Wyeth. Tumbleweed by Ellen Altfest.
Cao Fei explores "perception and reality in places as diverse as a Chinese factory and the virtual world of Second Life. - PBS"
The artist Misaki Kawai pictured with her friend artist Kei Morita
Mary Heilmann, quoted on the Whitney website as saying “I just think that in the midst of all the digital stuff, people sort of crave seeing something that’s still and quiet and on the wall.” Mary Heilmann. Surfing on Acid. 2005.
the Momenta Art site says: "Huma Bhabha culls her sculptures from the archives of science fiction. Like a shadow of Rodin that has fallen into the gutter and reassembled itself with discarded material, Bhabha morphs mineral to vegetable to animal." Pastel is untitled. by sculptor Huma Bhabha. 2008.
Josephine Halvorson. Three Red Books.
Mary Reid Kelly. Still from Sadie, the Saddest Sadist.
Cornell Student Body, 2005. Jean Shin
Armed. Jean Shin. 2005-9.
P.S. The London Times heralds a future belonging to female entrepreneurs in their article Meet the Lipstick Entrepreneurs, a terribly anachronistic name for women but nonetheless worth a read.
SERIOUSLY BETA! as we prepare for the London Design Festival. Please bear with us.
Who
What Women Make is a curatorial concept by writer, ethnographer, and brand strategist, Chauncey Zalkin (founder of pioneer trend website girlonthestreet.com).
With a keen interest in innovation and user-centric design and services that herald the future of the global community, WWM showcases and celebrates the female makers of the lot – designers, creative entrepreneurs, innovators, artisans, design students – from around the world.
To inquire about digital ethnography, team training, and speaking engagements, contact me and go to the about section to learn more.
Visit the new
video page to see full size stream of top notch creativity and thoughtfulness to engage and inspire you.
→ March 10, 2010
