Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.06.2016, Blaðsíða 8

Reykjavík Grapevine - 16.06.2016, Blaðsíða 8
The villain of the issue this issue is com- petitive poker. We at the Grapevine love playing cards as much as the next per- son with a pathological compulsion, but watching competitive poker combines the worst elements of athletic competi- tion—: crass commercialisation, over- inflated egos, and ingrained sexism— - and it’s not even fun to watch. And that’s before we talk about people who play cards while wearing hats and sunglass- es. Where I come from, you try to play some cards wearing sunglasses and you can expect to get shown the curb fast. And do we really need to glamourize an activity that causes people to lose bil- lions of dollars every year? Other sports have their share of problems, to be sure, but here’s a “sport” that barely qualifies as such, and is likely the only sport that people can end up losing their life sav- ings and going to 12-step meetings over. Poker isn’t a sport any more than com- petitive slot machines would be, and it’s for this reason that competitive poker is the villain of the issue. The hero of the issue this issue is Ice- land’s women’s football team, a criminally under-reported-on squad who have nonetheless made some stel- lar advances. Most recently, after beat- ing Scotland 0-4, they later went on to trounce Macedonia with an astonish- ing 0-8 final score. We’re not implying they’ve been ignored because they’re women or anything, but imagine for a moment the nationwide jubilation that would ensue if the men’s team got a win like this in a crucial game that made the difference between probably going to the Euros or not. At the same time, while there have been considerable advances on the gender equality front, football is still largely targeted at boys, and the men’s teams (of pretty much any sport, really) get coverage by default, whereas the women’s teams seem to have to con- vince reporters that they’re worth cover- ing. Even with the deck stacked against them, the Icelandic women’s football time has been kicking some serious ass, and it’s for this reason that they are this issue’s hero of the issue. HERO OF THE ISSUE VILLAIN OF THE ISSUEWomen's Football Competitive Poker Heads-Up PokerJoao Castro STRANGE BREW Getting Schooled Feminist discourse: Two sixteen-year-olds on gender inequality Words KELLEY REES Photo JÓHANNA PÉTURSDÓTTIR Many great people start young. bell hooks wrote about encountering ad- versity in the newly integrated public school system. Malala Yousafzai was the co-recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize at the age of seventeen. And although they have yet to appear in The Atlantic Monthly or be nominated for a peace prize by Desmond Tutu, Margrét Snor- radóttir and Una Torfadóttir, both six- teen, are great. The high schoolers recently gave a TEDx Talk on feminism, emphasiz- ing the importance of utilizing any and all available platforms to project your message. They won last year’s an- nual Reykjavík-wide Skrekkur talent competition with ‘Elsku Stelpur’ (“Dear Girls”), a choreographed spoken-word performance, written by Una, balking at societal gender norms and question- ing patriarchal standards. Margrét be- gan Ronja, a feminist group at Hagas- kóli, their high school, and organized #ronjaferátúr (“Ronja has her period”) to confront stigma surrounding men- struation. The club has a membership of ninety in a school with roughly five hundred students and although only fif- teen or so members are male, Margrét and Una think the boys are catching on. “I feel like, if I were a boy and listening to the whole conversation about femi- nism it’s so easy to fall into this trap of following the rules of feminists and not breaking any of them, like, ‘Don’t objec- tify women, don’t do this, don’t do that,’” Una says. “And it’s really important that they try and do this, but I also think they have to realize that these are not rules created to make them feel bad or to limit them. They’re made for all of us to feel better. And to make these changes last, boys have to realize how good these rules are and how good they are indi- vidually as well. I think that’s really the only way we can make lasting change–to have boys have their own impact on the movement as well.” Talk the Feminist Talk The two are extremely personable, wise beyond their years, and still, in many ways, endearingly sixteen years old. It was their vice principal who broke the news that TEDx wanted the two to give a talk. “She called us up and was like, ‘Have you heard of this thing called “Ted”?’ And we acted very casual but inside we were screaming,” Una says. They were given guidelines but left pretty much to their own devices. “It didn’t take us very long; the hardest part was deciding what we were going to talk about and how it was going to come across,” Margrét says. “And then when we started, we just took one night, we ate ice cream, and for three hours we just wrote it.” The two were in the midst of exams as rehears- als for the TEDx program took place. As a Ted Talk rule, no paper is allowed on- stage, so they would need to know their lines by heart. This meant studying and sitting for exams, practicing their piece in between, and coordinating with the TEDx dress rehearsal all during the same period. The culmination was a seamless routine. Una and Margrét are both thought- ful and candid in their assessment of feminism in their homeland, an outlook which lends itself to unassailable frank assertions. “Feminism is trendy in Ice- land and the coolest people in Iceland, the rappers and the musicians, are all feminists,” Una says. “They’re saying, ‘Yes, I support equal rights and every- thing,’ but then these same people are not acting like feminists. They don’t speak up when they see inequality, they themselves may slut-shame or objectify women without even thinking about it. It’s so difficult when it becomes okay to act that way but also call yourself a femi- nist.” The Best-Laid Plans Like any good adolescent, the pair are uncertain what the future holds. “The original idea was: Go to college, become a doctor, and move somewhere and it’s been like that since I was ten,” says Mar- grét. “Ever since I’ve gotten involved in this, that’s become less and less a solid plan. I want to do more things in our so- ciety. I want to stay involved.” No matter the path, the outcome is sure to be great. SHARE: gpv.is/tedfem “Feminism is trendy in Iceland...” “...But then these same people are not acting like feminists” INTERVIEW The Reykjavík Grapevine Issue 8 — 2016 8
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