Reykjavík Grapevine - 11.06.2004, Blaðsíða 11

Back in the days when I saw life in black and white, right
or wrong, I would watch “Rosemary’s Baby” religiously and
then imagine her husband being pushed down the stairs
as punishment for his wicked ways. My blood thirst only
got stronger when I read the book and I had a hard time
understanding how women got stuck in abusive relationships.
Then life hit me. Some years and quite a number of life-
changing experiences later, my firm beliefs were not quite what
they used to be. Gone was my irresistible longing to punish
the treacherous villain, now that I had realised life just isn’t as
simple as that. To this day, I always get a mild shock when I
hear a woman who wishes torture upon rapists or laws upon
men who outrank her. And if there’s one thing I have little
patience for, that’s women who demand equal rights. It’s not
that I dislike what these feminist fascists are endlessly trying
to accomplish, i.e. these so called “equal” rights. I just dislike
the way they go about it, claiming there to be great injustice
in the way society works. I don’t care how they try to justify it,
there just shouldn’t be a law saying that if two equally qualified
people apply for the same job in a male dominant industry that
the employer must hire the woman. Of course it should also be
about whether the applicant suits the work atmosphere, to name
one example. An employer should be able to hire anyone he (or
she) damn well pleases, anyway.
The University of Iceland offers something called “gender
studies” (kynjafræði). These studies focus mainly on women,
their standing in different societies, the history of women’s fight
for equal rights and feminist approaches in academic works.
Apparently, men aren’t a gender. If you don’t believe me, feel
free to look it up in the University’s book of modules. I admit
I’m being just a little bit unfair, they do have one course on men
and manhood (karlar og karlmennska). But it is funny that they
should specifically mention that this course not only looks at
men’s constructive forces but their destructive ones as well.
Now, I’m not saying that men are saints. But what surprises
me is that they haven’t remarked much on the fact that males
are becoming the oppressed gender in society. Women get all
sorts of “special treatment” because we’re constantly being told
that we are a minority group. Not too long ago four qualified
people applied for the job of a Supreme Court judge. The
job then went to the Prime Minister’s nephew. The three
men only had the Parliament’s ombudsman to turn to with
their grievances, while the woman could complain to the
Equal Rights committee as well, which is a group of people
that investigates whether women applying for jobs have been
wrongfully turned down. Such committees are spreading fast
and you can find one in almost every town in Iceland. Yes, it
has gotten to the point where men have started to flee into
other lines of work. More and more men are taking on women’s
uniforms as workers in health care and education. Women, on
the other hand, are taking over the University, where 62% of the
students are female. Their numbers have been rising fast, as only
ten years ago they were little more than half of all the students.
As long as women are treated as a minority group, we will never
get any headway with the “unjust gap” between the sexes. Equal
rights are not about helping the minority groups. They’re about
making sure that no one gets special treatment, not even the
minority groups.
I blame Justin Timberlake. And I blame CBS. Maybe I should
even blame U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft. But maybe I
should be thanking them as well. After all, they did remind us
all that feminism has a long way to go.
I’m referring, of course, to the “incident” at the Super Bowl
when Janet Jackson’s breast was briefly exposed on national
television. Both Jackson and Timberlake admitted that this
thing was staged and just exposed more skin than intended,
yet who got raked over the coals? Who got chuckled about on
Jay Leno, chastised by CBS, and lambasted by Ashcroft? The
woman, of course.
I know America’s a rabidly puritanical society, wherein watching
a woman being murdered on primetime TV is acceptable but
watching a woman being made love to is not. And it’s true that
the NFL’s complaint was that the Super Bowl is a “family show”
but even tiny infants have seen breasts up close and in personal.
And yes, it’s also true that Ashcroft is the same guy who ordered
a sheet draped over the Justice statue’s exposed breast once
before giving a speech, as it offended his tender sensibilities. But
when the story broke here in Iceland, I was surprised by how
many people didn’t talk about the overly puritanical reaction of
the American public - rather, they too laughed at Ms. Jackson.
Is this some Adam and Eve thing, where both sexes are culpable
of doing something pretty innocuous and yet the woman takes
the fall? Perhaps. But the reactions to this incident reminded me
how far feminism still has to go before any real equality will be
achieved. According to a Norwegian survey (www.likestilling.
no), among unskilled workers, Icelandic women make about 883
kronur for every 1000 a man makes. In skilled labour, that ratio
is 714 to every 1000
It could it be that women are being paid less than men for the
same work because they’re not taken seriously. Need proof? Just
flip channels some time on Icelandic television and see what
gender is hosting which programs. When it comes to political
analysis, roundtable discussions, and interviews with the elite,
you can always expect to see a man hosting the show. But if you
want to see what how the famous decorate their homes or what
to wear this summer, well, that’s women’s work, isn’t it?
To make the equality between the genders not just a legal but a
cultural reality takes the effort of both genders. It’s not just the
woman’s burden for her to assert herself in the workplace, at
home, on the street or in popular culture. Men can, should, and
in many ways are furthering the cause for equality, which isn’t
easy. The general assumption among men is that “feminist men”
are either spineless, “whipped”, or just plain strange and best
avoided. Since men are so sensitive about the opinion of their
peers, many choose to remain silent.
We also have to watch our own behavior and be sure that we
don’t fall into the all-too-comfortable assumptions passed down
from generation to generation. Most of all, if we can’t defend
our mothers, daughters and sisters, do we even know what
justice is? We have to remember that this is not an issue of
gender; it’s an issue of humanity. The rights we fight for belong
to everyone.
Justin Timberlake is doing just fine; Janet Jackson has all but
disappeared from view. But I hope she makes a comeback, big
time. Not that I’m a big fan of her music, but it’d be so nice to
see her back again, unapologetic, doing what she does best. It’s
at least comforting to know that she’ll probably outlive John
Ashcroft. Maybe his tight-lipped, puritanical, sexist ideas will
die with him. The choice, as always, is ours.
Reading through most history books, you find a conspicuous
absence of women. Before the 19th Century, there´s Elisabeth
of England, Catherine the Great of Russia, Cleopatra, Joan of
Arc, but not many other key players to be found. One is given
the impression that their impact on history was slight.
The Sagas beg to differ. They are full of strong-willed women
who put events in motion. When the men are at each others
throats, it is often the women who egged them on, prompting
the saying “köld eru kvennaráð” (cold is a woman´s counsel).
Some scholars have even suggested that Laxdæla saga was
written by a woman.
In the Sagas, women display a number of traits not traditionally
considered feminine. They can be ambitious, vindictive, arrogant
and very, very cunning, using their wits as well as their beauty
to get their way. Sometimes, they´re even physically braver than
the men. In the Saga of Eric the Red, after coming to America,
his daughter, Freydís, finds one of the men lying dead. At that
moment the natives arrive again, and she bares her breasts and
lays them on the dead man’s blade, which frightens the natives
away.
Perhaps the Sagas give a more accurate portrayal of actual
gender relations in history. The men may have acted out most
of the major events (and have taken most of the credit), but no
doubt they were often guided by strong-willed women behind
the scenes.
In our own time, women from Thatcher to Bruntland to Aquino
should have proved without a doubt that women can be just as
effective leaders as men, whatever their polices, whereas recent
events in Iraq may have shown that they can be just as cruel
when presented with the tools of oppression. It is high time
women were allowed to enter the history books. But from now
on, they will also have to share their part of the blame.
IS FEMINISM STILL NECESSARY?
The feminist movement in Iceland has taken a huge leap in
the last year or so. Being fed up of still getting less pay, too few
women in management and politics, pornification of the public
space and lack of action to improve the situation, Icelandic
women and men joined forces in the Feminist Association
of Iceland. The Feminist Association of Iceland was founded
just over a year ago, on April 14th. The association has several
groups that each concentrate on a specific topic. We have a
security council that concentrates on reducing violence against
women, a stereotype group, culture group, men and feminism
group, health group, education group, a web group, and a group
for young feminists. There has been a lot of activity in the last
year. We started just before the last parliamentary elections so
we organized meetings with all the parties, both before and after
the election. This was also the season of beauty pageants so of
course we wanted a discussion about the purpose of them in our
society.
Among our actions was to open an art exhibition that showed
the history of protests against beauty pageants from 1970 to
date. We marched on Labour day, May 1st, all dressed in pink
and on June 19th, the day women got the right to vote, we
organized a national campaign named “Let’s paint the town
pink”, in cooperation with other women’s organizations. That
day we encouraged everyone to show their support for equality
by wearing something pink. We delivered pink coloured stones
to four significant men in our society: the President of Iceland,
the Minister of Health, The Mayor of Reykjavik and the Bishop
of Iceland. The stones were an encouragement to remember to
have equality in mind in all decision making.
The biggest event our first year was a 9-day Feminist Week,
filled with actions every day. We encouraged all women to
ask for a 15% pay increase and asked employers to compare
the wages between their female and male employees. We had
an art exhibition with self portraits of women and another
one about pornography available through Icelandic websites.
We held symposiums about women’s health issues, women in
management, pay difference, and met with three of the receivers
of the Pink Stones from June 19th, the Minister of Health, the
Mayor of Reykjavik and a representative from the Bishop of
Iceland. Much more was accomplished this week and it ended
with a ball where female bands performed. More information
of what we have done can be found on our website, www.
feministinn.is.
Gender plays a big role in our lives and men and women
are viewed differently, meet different expectations and have
different economical and political power. Our goal is not to
make everyone the same but to celebrate the diversity and to
view our differences as equal. We want both genders to have as
many options to choose from as possible and we want the pink
choices to be just as important and valuable as the blue choices.
With this in mind we are currently organizing our second
campaign of “Let’s paint the town pink” with other women’s
organizations. If you happen to be in Iceland on June 19th,
remember to put on something pink to show your support for
equality.
Katrín Anna Guðmundsdóttir
Spokeswoman of the Feminist Association of IcelandPink Choices
Eydís Björnsdóttir
StudentThe Girl Power Generation Grows Up
Paul Fontaine-Nikolov
American exileEve Takes the Fall
Valur Gunnarsson
Icelandic maleWere there no women in history?