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sexytiime · 3 years

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I was looking at books on Marxism + Feminism online and came across the book:

Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory

A woman named Susan Rosenthal wrote this 3-star review. I just skimmed it and wanted to share here to see people’s thoughts. I have not read the book myself but I am curious about this review.

“Takes us down the wrong road”

Reviewed in the United States on March 15, 2014

Can marxism guide us in our struggle against women's oppression? In her preface to "Marxism and the Oppression of Women: Toward a Unitary Theory," Lise Vogel acknowledges the value of marxist theory:

"I remain convinced that the revival of Marxist theory, not the construction of some socialist-feminist synthesis, offers the best chance to provide theoretical guidance in the coming battles for the liberation of women". (p.ix)

At the same time, she argues,

"...that the socialist tradition is deeply flawed, that it has never adequately addressed the question of women..." (p.2)

These two statements reveal the strength and weakness of Vogel's book.

The book's strength lies in its marxist analysis of the labor necessary to reproduce the working class, the portion of that labor performed by women in the home, and the role of men in the sexual division of labor.

The book's weakness lies in its description of how capitalism organizes reproduction as a "system of male domination." With this description, Vogel retains the core of capitalist (bourgeois) feminism, that the liberation of women requires a cross-class women's movement organized separately from men.

Ferguson and McNally's 24-page Introduction supports Vogel's concept of a "male-dominant gender-order."

"It is not biology per se that dictates women's oppression; but rather, capital's dependence upon biological processes specific to women - pregnancy, childbirth, lactation - to secure the reproduction of the working class. It is this that induces capital and its state to control and regulate female reproduction and which impels them to reinforce a male-dominant gender-order. And this social fact, connected to biological difference, comprises the foundation upon which women's oppression is organized in capitalist society." (p. xxix)

Dishonest

To support her position, Vogel refers to the writings of 19th and early 20th century socialists. She quotes August Bebel, "women should expect as little help from the men as working men do from the capitalist class," and Eleanor Marx and Edward Aveling in The Woman Question,

"Women are the creatures of an organized tyranny of men, as the workers are the creatures of an organized tyranny of idlers." (p. 108)

She concludes that "the idea that women's situation parallels that of workers suggests a strategy of parallel social struggles for freedom" (p. 108).

This entire section is dishonest. Vogel ignores Bebel's description of upper-and-middle-class women and working-class women as "enemy sisters," and his explicit recommendation against women in antagonistic classes organizing together, except for united-front actions that benefit all women.(1)

Vogel also disregards Eleanor Marx, who could not be more clear on the matter:

"For us there is no more a `women's question' from the bourgeois standpoint than there is a men's question. Where the bourgeois women demand rights that are of help to us too, we will fight together with them, just as the men of our class did not reject the right to vote because it came from the bourgeois class. We too will not reject any benefit, gained by the bourgeois women in their own interests, which they provide us willingly or unwillingly. We accept these benefits as weapons, weapons that enable us to fight better on the side of our working-class brothers. We are not women arrayed in struggle against men but workers who are in struggle against the exploiters."(2)

In other words, socialists do not counter-pose women's liberation to the needs of the revolution; we use women's liberation to achieve the revolution.

Class matters

Vogel describes, but does not seem to understand, Clara Zetkin's class-based approach to women's liberation which is that all women are oppressed, but not all women have the same interest in ending capitalism. Women in the capitalist class are denied "free and independent control over their property," a condition that can be remedied by legal equality under capitalism.

In the middle and professional classes, women strive for equal access to education and employment compared with the men of their class. They call on capitalism to fulfill its pledge to promote free competition in every arena, including between women and men. These women form what is commonly called the `bourgeois' women's movement because they limit their demands to legal reforms.

Working-class women also seek legal equality with the men of their class, but such equality would only mean the right to equal exploitation. The liberation of working-class women requires an end to labor exploitation, and that can be achieved only by uniting with working-class men.

Theoretically and practically, the question of women's liberation peaks during the Russian Revolution. Vogel describes Lenin's emphasis on the importance of freeing women from "domestic slavery" so they could participate fully in the revolutionary transformation of Russian society. Achieving this required a two-fold process: socializing domestic labor and engaging men in housework. The latter required a systematic campaign against male chauvinism. Could such a campaign succeed?

Vogel observes that the capitalist system pays men more so they can support child-bearing women in individual family units. She concludes that this creates a system of male domination, or patriarchy. She writes,

"a material basis for male supremacy is constituted within the proletarian household... [providing] a continuing foundation for male supremacy in the working-class family." (p.88)

Vogel neglects to mention that the higher male wage comes with a price. `Family obligations' tie men to jobs they might otherwise leave. Men are legally bound to support women and children, even after they have left their families and formed new ones. And "dead-beat dads" can be imprisoned for not paying child support.

The key question is whether putting men in a financially-dominant position requires them to personally dominate their homes. The one does not automatically follow from the other. A superior financial position does not create male domination in the family, it only creates the opportunity for it.

Individual men can choose what to believe and how to treat others. Some men take advantage of their financial position to dominate women and children. Others do not. Consequently, the sexual division of labor under capitalism does not qualify as a system of male domination over women that can be compared to the system of capitalist domination over workers. The antagonism between women and men can be eliminated by re-organizing society. The antagonism between capital and labor is irreconcilable. As long as capital exists, labor will be exploited.

A system of sexism

Some socialists argue that "the current use of the term patriarchy...merely describes a system of sexism."(3) We certainly do suffer a system of sexism; every woman can testify to that. However, patriarchy implies a system of domination by men, while a system of sexism implies that society is dominated by sexist ideology. The difference is important.

A system of male domination implies that all men benefit from the oppression of women, whether they choose this or not. A system of sexist ideology allows individual men (and individual women) to choose whether to adopt or reject sexist beliefs and behaviors.

The failure to distinguish between individual interests and class interests lies at the heart of the debate over whether men benefit from women's oppression and whether women should organize separately from men.

The working class can never achieve socialism unless most women fight for it. Therefore, as a class, working-class men cannot benefit from women's oppression. However, the system of sexist ideas gives individual men the opportunity to do so. Some men embrace this opportunity; other men reject it.

Capitalism pressures all workers to abandon their class interests for the promise of personal gain. White workers can take advantage of Black oppression to advance themselves, or they can choose to fight racism. Individual workers can accept management bribes to get ahead, or they can choose to join a union, and so on.

Male superiority is the booby prize that capitalism offers men to sweeten the bitter taste of class exploitation. As Vogel notes,

"The ruling class, in order to stabilize the reproduction of labor power as well as to keep the amount of necessary labor at acceptable levels, encourages male supremacy within the exploited class. "(p.153)

While capitalism "encourages male supremacy," many men reject this role because it hurts the women they love, and it blocks them from enjoying egalitarian, cooperative relationships.

The individual man has no choice about whether or not the women in his life are oppressed; capitalism ensures that they are. However, individual men can choose either to take advantage of women's oppression or to share the burdens of the home and join the fight to socialize domestic labor.

Class comes first

The socialist challenge is to convince working-class men to put their class interests first, to convince them that whatever benefits they gain from women's oppression pale in comparison with the benefits they could have by rejecting sexism and fighting alongside women to end capitalism and all of its oppressions.

In contrast, Vogel, Ferguson and McNally offer a pseudo-marxist argument for a cross-class movement of women organized separately from men. This concession to bourgeois feminism betrays the interests of working-class women.

Any mixed-class movement of women must betray its working-class members. When working-class women demand socialized childcare, their privileged sisters moan about paying higher taxes. When working-class women demand more pay, their privileged sisters oppose the rising cost of hired help. The only `feminism' that can liberate all classes of women is the `feminism' that is based on the goals of the working class.

As Lenin argued with the Jewish Bund, advocating the right of oppressed groups to organize independently is different from promoting independent organization on principle. As a tactic, independent organization can advance the struggle against oppression within the working-class. As a principle, the independent organization of women deepens antagonisms between men and women and undermines working-class unity.

If the goal of this book was "to provide theoretical guidance in the coming battles for the liberation of women," then it takes us down the wrong road. To argue that women must organize separately from men is pessimistic and self-defeating. As Vogel documents, both women's oppression and men's role in this oppression are rooted in capitalism. Therefore, only a united working-class fight can uproot it.

There is nothing flawed or lacking in the socialist tradition of women's liberation; it simply does not meet the needs of privileged women who seek to end their own oppression without destroying the class system that enslaves their working-class sisters.

The value of Vogel's book lies in her confirmation that the sexual division of labor, male-female relations, and existing family structures are not based on biology but on the particular historical form that capitalism has chosen in order to ensure the reproduction of the working class. While not original, this hopeful message is worth repeating:

No biological barriers prevent women and men from working together to reshape the world to meet their needs. Only capitalism stands in the way.

Notes

1. Cited in Draper, H. (2011). Women and Class: Towards a Socialist Feminism. Center for Socialist History, pp.234-5.

2. Cited in Draper, H. (2011). Women and Class: Towards a Socialist Feminism. Center for Socialist History, pp.287.

3. Marxism, feminism and women's liberation, Sharon Smith, Socialist Worker, January 31, 2013.

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kimyoonmiauthor · 4 years

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Story Ideas I posted on Soompi for K-dramas.

Posted November 14, 2020. I worked on these with some other Korean adoptees. Posting here to document it. Triple back up is not a bad idea when you do this type of thing. Elevator Pitch:

- Alt Joseon History Reverse Drama Harem set after the Imjin War, Women-centric (I suggested it last round, but I'm making it more attractive)

- Heart-warming adoptee tale set with Jaebeol family as the birth family.

Reverse Alt Joseon history Harem (I left historical research notes in for you to further research too).

After the Imjin War, Prince Gwanghae declared an "Honorable Women's list", which made the Queen Dowager upset with him and the crown prince (In real history he used the excuse of less arable land because of Japanese invasion to give land from widows to men, so they could get royal titles. In Nepal, in the mountains, less land has also meant that for some peoples there, the women marry a group of brothers who rotate time with the wife, guaranteeing land to her and them). So, she deposed him and installed the daughter of the Royal Consort Ui to the throne of Joseon. Joseon has been a Matriarchy ever since then with women ruling the throne and a harem to match. All of the key positions have been ruled by women. Men have to get permission to divorce, they cannot own land, and they are put on cycles per month rotation to favor their wife, who have all the power. Since then, the merit-based system has somewhat fallen apart with men severely devalued. Men are considered weaker than women in every aspect-- not as smart, frivolous, fixated on material possessions (like hair, clothes, make up, etc and landing a good woman with money), unable to learn anything other than etiquette on how to properly serve women, unable to do military affairs, unable to do magic (Based on harnessing spirits and Mugyo) [I suppose one could have a male-based magic system too that more subtle maybe based on Buddhism? since men imported Buddhism to Korea], can't do ancestor rituals but must provide the food, widows are expected to die (because who will take care of the men and provide for them if their breadwinner is gone?), and much physically weaker. They are devalued if they can't marry by the time they are 30 because they are viewed as much less virile. They are there to lead women astray from their husbands in the minds of society, and they are the ones punished for faults. If they rape or are accused of rape, they are met with death. They are considered peacocks for decoration and fill the brothels and red districts. They are allowed dance and to do street dramas, but this is considered a lesser art form compared to the lavish palace versions. Queen of Joseon, considered the most beautiful such that all the women want to imitate her... with her curly hair and freckles, is on the throne and has amassed a large portion of the men, leaving many of the Noble women unmarried. Her harem has grown huge with mostly pretty boys she's selected. She has lavish palace dances every day with pretty boys from her harem to entertain her. She also has them perform plays [Can reference previous dramas and do anachronistic references] for her more lavish than the next. The Prime Minister, has been supporting her habits to distract her from her duties while controlling the throne. The Prime Minister, while she has one husband and one concubine has been neglecting her husband and spending all her time with her concubine. There is a rebellion swelling against them... *** Extended version: In the midst of this, there are Portuguese traders that have come to shore with black men who are slaves, come to do trade (this really happened in Korean history). One of the slaves comes to the court to help refine the map of Africa (Gangnido was done in 1402 and Portuguese contact with Japan happened in 1543, so it's not that far fetched according to history). While helping the Minister of Arts, they fall in love with each other. She teaches him Korean, and he teaches her about his part of Africa. He comes from West Africa. (Hausa [Queen Amina died in 1610], maybe and maybe give him a Korean name later?) There, both men and women can be tribal leaders and share responsibilities. He comes to teach her that both men and women can be equal. The court grants him his freedom for his services, and he stays and marries this woman, despite objections, who, then becomes a part of the resistance against the Queen.

The Heads of the resistance is none other than the Prime Minister's concubine, not the Prime Minister's husband, who has been loyal this entire time. (Delaying this discovery is a good idea) Tired of having to service the Prime Minister every night, and entertain her, he has been leading a double life. He wants men in control again. The other conspirator is the Queen's top consort, who looks like a bumbling fool with his love of jokes (especially dry humor), stupid puns, food (though not fat, just fancy food), and has tried to look as useless and tolerant of the system as possible. But he loves his Queen deeply, which is why he wants to end the system and ask for equality. They have been meeting and arguing at an eating establishment since Royals aren't let into Red Districts, where a widowed lovable Halmeoni (You can get her to sell Subway sandwiches to camera, etc for laughs. Subway and Quiznos have a sense of humor... so why not ask if they are willing? Since it's alt history--make winks to the audience that you know it's not accurate.) has been slowly learning all of the court secrets... which is how the Queen learns of their dirty plots. The person who wanted this scenario fleshed out also wants the Queen to be... "Queen can’t be too flaky- forgetful to a fault, yea. Clumsy . Cold, a bit snarky, always on edge and with quite an appetite. Forgiving of the wrong folks. Always looking for good in them but not trusting. Independent and she has to drive a black carriage!"

How this concludes, with equality, crushing the rebellion, or with men, again, taking power and thus making everyone question what was better is up to you, if you choose this idea. Five Act or 기승전결 is up to you. (Or mix them).

Suggested issues to include (and why you might want to write this) and errata:

Can challenge current Korean issues of spousal abuse, feminism, gender issues (Such as nonbinary people), trans (Such as transmen), Make Mugyo a state religion since it was supported a lot by women during Joseon (also supported LGBTQIA, past and present. Baksu~~) And also challenge our understanding of history by adding in people like Lady Jang Gye Hyang (1598-1680), who would be against the current government and for rule by men, mention mention Heo Nanseorheon (Pre-Imjin war... she needs a drama done about her because she's always overshadowed by her brothers and made into a brat, rather than a full character and an intelligent woman, which she was). ImYunjidang (1721-1793) and Kang Chonggildang (1772-1832) for example... also aren't often mentioned figures. There were historical figures in real life that were for and against the new Joseon order of Neo Confucianism, though many of the women that spoke out had their papers burned by the patriarchy. Inserting those figures historically sageuk have been resistant to insert because it goes against the ideas of Joseon being an idealistic patriarchy might add spice to the drama. One can also challenge the idea that "traditional" values are male dominated by pointing out that widows in Joseon pre-Imjin war could own land and pass it to their daughters unchallenged, that LGBTQIA was more widely accepted, and that there were great Queens before that like Seondeok by upholding them as the rule, rather than the exception as reasons why the Matriarchy is "superior" to the previous Patriarchy.

One of the women who helped with this premise likes Lee Min Ho a lot.... lol She'd probably request that the Prime Minister's Concubine be Lee Min Ho. (He hasn't done a Joseon historical drama in a while and I think he could play both sides well--warm and sweet and then cold and callous...).

Probably needs a woman to write this one versed in feminism and history or a woman and man team. I hope it passes the Bechdel test (Two women talk about something other than men, preferably more than one time), the Mako Mori Test (Women have a motivation other than romance or the man and doesn't degrade over time). and the Sexy Lamp test (The women have agency to make decisions, face consequences and rescue themselves)... there is no fridging--i.e. killing characters without knowing them solely to motivate the main characters to do something, and makes us think deeper about gender issues, feminism, etc. I suppose if the writer hits really hard on social issues, it would be probably JTBC material (who haven't done a Historical drama in a while). Tonally, I was hoping for a mixture of laughs and thinking about the issues more deeply, and some tight action to keep us guessing. If you want to argue marketability: I saw Romance of the Tiger and Rose (China) and Ooku by Fumi Yoshinaga. And a friend of mine (also Korean) wanted a drama with her and her (drama) harem of guys, so... we want a Korean commentary on feminism done this way, but with sharper feminism and more imagination attached. Covering modern feminist issues is fine since it's fantasy. Be transgressive.

BTW, for sponsorship: (since the costumes might cost extra, etc) easy... cosmetics advertised by men, done anachronistically to camera, on purpose. Other plugs can be done this way too... which would sell the product, but also make people question gender roles at the same time. Or you can also do plugs this way and suddenly gender them, making people question how this item is "male" or "female". Like a brush, or a wall, drink, sandwich (lol Quiznos and Subway), etc. can be called "Masculine" or "feminine" and be sold to camera, if the sponsors cooperate. (Sold by Pretty Boy actors to the audience... there's a good chance.) This should get you to at most episode 6, if it's paced well and you plotted the rest of the angles. If it's action-filled with lots of twists then the basic scenario will get you through to episode 4. The twists can come later.

And the other one was invented between me and another Korean adoptee...

Elevator Pitch: Heart-warming adoptee tale set with Jaebeol family as the birth family.

Twenty-five years ago, there were identical twins born to the same mother, but because her petition to get a paternity test failed from a Jaebeol family, she was forced by her lover's family to give them up for adoption, despite her best efforts to get into the single mother's homes (the adoption agency ones are pretty terrible because they try to wear down the women into giving up their children and seats are very few at the government ones). A woman had been stalking her while pregnant in order to give up her children for a kickback from the adoption agencies and from the family itself (There were KBS and MBC reports about it in the early 2000's), so with major heartbreak, she decided to give them up. However, her lover never knew this was a case.

The children were split up. One went to the United States, was adopted to a white family, and the other was adopted to Korean family, but never told they were adopted.

In the current time, the US adoptee, has been working for a year and a half to get her dual citizenship. She has a degree in Business accounting and is a very warm person. Despite her talents, she is teaching English in Suwon. She has an allergy to allium (Garlic, onions, etc), which makes it hard on her to eat Korean food. Every time she eats it, she gets gas and a tummy ache. She is constantly mocked by the ajumma in restaurants over it. She does not speak very fluent Korean and only knows Kindergarten Korean. She also often has delusions from Korean dramas as being real. Intelligent, smart, but has a hard time proving it to the Koreans around her because of her lack of language skills. People keep commenting on how she's single, but she finds it hard to date anyone once they find out she is adopted, so thinks she has no roots. Her records were sealed by the military. (US Military adoption is like that) So she takes a trip to Daegu's police station to get a DNA test. Meanwhile...

Meanwhile her twin has grown up in a steady Korean family, but there are things that never quite matched about her story and the family she's lived with. Their profession aspirations are totally different from hers, everyone else has a baby picture, but she doesn't. That feeling of "Jeong" sometimes feels like it's missing. The neighbors talk behind their hands when she passes them. This is when she accidentally discovers the truth talking to a neighborhood recycling Halmeoni. Unlike her twin, she has no allergy to allium and loves it. She mainly works at PC Bang and menial jobs and never really aspired to much because she's always felt like she didn't really truly belong.

*** Extended Pitch At the same time, their father has become the head of the company and a major CEO of a conglomerate. He is unaware of the twins' existence... so there are lots of passing shots between the family members as we get to know them. The company politics have become tricky because the father's seat was never really guaranteed. He still thinks about his lover from time to time, but his seat has become more and more unsure as he's opted adamantly out of marriage. The twin's mother is working at a small time job, and is forced to keep silent about the time she's tried very hard to forget. People shame her if they find out she had children.

When the twins finally get to remeet because of DNA, this shakes up their father's position and his company. The family secrets come out and the mystery of who sent the mysterious woman to stalk their mother starts to unfold, not only the secrets of the company, but of their father and mother's relationship, and of the family relations. But in the middle of this is that feeling of "Jeong" or instant belonging. (I don't think the love of the adoptive family should be diminished or it should be written like if you have more family, you have less love... but that there are things that connect people in different ways and the drama explores those ways of connection and disconnection.)

Issues that can be covered: Single Motherhood, Paternity testing (There was a recent Korean case on this and also another case about 10 years ago, where an adoptee found out they (male) were the son of a Jaebeol person, but the family refused any contact, etc--should be in Korean as well.), Economic differences, what Pres. Kim Dae Jeong called Adoption as the "brain drain" of South Korea (He said it on film, too, just before the reforms <3 Still my favorite president), Prejudices against foreigners, adoptees, and addressing the fact that finding family is difficult because of the shame around adoption and it's not instant. A person can start at 13, and still go through a ton of work and hoops to try to get any info. (The Korean agencies can also be mean/overworked with one person working all of the cases, like for HOLT and ESWS it's this way.) Also can address problems like how cousins can want to find each other, but get blocked because of adoption (You can't marry up to Second Cousins, but if you're adopted, you can't find your extended family members, even if you had connection to them in the past and they know you exist and they aren't allowed to search for you either because the agencies and law block them). Agencies lying that children are either dead, or that they never got communication, when they have. There is a story I know where a mother inquired every year about her child and wrote letters and then the agencies told her they got nothing, and then the matching adoptee wrote every year too, hoping to find their mother and equally got nothing. The agency lied to both of them. Also the old proxy system before it got outlawed where women would stalk pregnant single women to get records. (It's updated to the lawyer proxy system where lawyers stalk single women).

Warmth, not makjang, emphasis on Jeong and nunchi... and Warm and Fuzzy in the end at least... with spurts of humor interspersed would be nice.

Personally, I think if MBC or KBS is willing to help with the footage from the Proxy system report in the early 2000's where women were stalked by other women, those are the networks to pitch it to. It's up their ally. If not... cable. (I love SBS, too, no lies, but they didn't do a report back in the day.) Oh and make it 16 episodes-ish. Not family drama. We don't watch family dramas for length reasons...

#k-drama #ideas

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bluewatsons · 5 years

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Steven S. Giannino & Shannon B. Campbell, The Reality of the Gaze: A Critical Discourse Analysis of Flavor of Love, 2 Int J Hum Soc Sci 59 (2012)

Abstract

This project examines Flavor of Love, a reality based dating show broadcast on Vh1, and its place in the continuum of televised subordination of women, particularly women of color. The study uses concepts of the “male” and “dominate” gaze to explore the interplay of race, gender, and misogyny, and the possible implications on audience perception. Television acts as a powerful socialization agent, and shapes audiences racially stratified and gendered world. Critical discourse analysis provides the rich contextual data necessary to extrapolate the relationship between race and gender inequality in reality television. This article highlights the production of meaning created by a visual cultural storyteller housed within a hegemonic tradition that objectifies and subjugates women of color powerless.

SECTION- 1

Flavor of Love is a reality based dating show starring Flavor Flav, the former front man for the 80′s hip-hop group, Public Enemy. The show debuted in 2006 and catapulted Flavor Flav and the cable network its broadcast on, VH1, to unprecedented popularity. Over six million viewers tuned in to the finale of the first season of Flavor of Love. The success of the inaugural season led to two more. A record-breaking 7.5 million viewers watched the season finale of Flavor of Love II, making it the network‟s highest rated telecast ever and the second highest non-sports basic cable show of 2006 (Jet, 2006).

During the 1980s, Flavor Flav rose to fame from the radical subculture of black maleness, an emerging hip hop culture that materialized from militant anti-racist activism. Flavor Flav served as a front man for one of the most radical black rap groups of that era, Public Enemy (Watkins, 2005). In 1987, Public Enemy burst onto the scene with their debut album, Yo! Bum Rush the Show. The album introduced listeners to a new sound, which employed an innovative style of sampling that used sounds from daily life to create beats and introduced politically and socially explicit lyricism to rap music. Their music provided motivation and inspiration for young black men seeking liberation from the chains of imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy (hooks, 2004).

Public Enemy’s profound sound and politically charged persona enabled them to become one of the first rap acts to achieve crossover success (Hope, 2006). Consequently, Public Enemy emerged as one of the most important acts in the music industry using rap culture to, “act out a daring yet mostly symbolic revolution” (Watkins, 2005, p.116). Flav quickly became renowned for his outlandish sense of style and asinine behavior. He provided drumming and comedic relief while wearing gold teeth, over-sized sunglasses, and a large clock. Flavor Flav‟s jester-like, yet subtly edgy demeanor, positioned him as the group‟s visual centerpiece. In addition, Flav provided vocals for hits like “9-1-1 is a Joke” and in doing so he transcended the role of a modern-day minstrel and became a significant revolutionary figure in the world of rap by becoming its first “hype” man (Hess, 2006).

In the early 90s, despite being an integral member of a revolutionary rap group responsible for initiating a movement in black culture that cultivated self-empowerment and united fronts, Flav began yielding to the benefit and priorities of corporate interests. Eventually Flav became a casualty of the revolution he and Public Enemy inspired and ultimately spent over a decade in entertainment obscurity. The reemergence of Flavor Flav in the 21st century, and the debut of Flavor of Love, gave television viewers their first chance to see the original “black bachelor.”

This essay continues the ongoing interrogation of race, gender, and representation in media, proceeding from the intellectual discourse and critical studies of Fiske (1986, 1987, 1989, 1996), Gilroy (1992), Hall (1992), and hooks (1990, 1992, 1994, 1996, 2003). Whether speaking to issues of gender and race, or politics and economics, critical studies can unmask the deeply embedded power structures that attempt to sustain dominant ideologies (Bell-Jordon, 2008). Hence, a critical discourse analysis (CDA) of Flavor of Love can facilitate a significant critique of the constructions of race and gender inequality and contribute meaningfully to critical work on reality television shows.

Along with CDA, Mulvey‟s (1975) and Russell‟s (1991) examinations of audience viewing perspectives in classical Hollywood cinema will be used as the framework to consider the ways in which reality television creates and maintains gender inequality, race-based stereotypes, and masculine viewing audience perceptions. Because cinema represents the precursor to television, referencing film helps place the televised imagery under review in proper context. Also, it aids in making clear the continuum of racist and misogynistic imagery currently depicted on television.

Additionally, this work identifies reality dating shows‟ (specifically Flavor of Love) place in perpetuating depictions that become a part of the total discourse housed in the hegemonic tradition that visually objectifies, subjugates, demeans, and ultimately renders women powerless. Finally, the study recognizes the inner workings of televised imagery as a system, which is part of an ideological apparatus that structures a white patriarchal world as normal (Mulvey, 1975; Russell, 1991). This article suggests that engaging in semiotic guerrilla warfare by creating alternate meanings to mediated texts will provide readers with the tools necessary to resituate existing power sources through critical engagement and self-definition (Fiske, 1989).1

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Studies illustrating the omnipresence of television and the ways in which it serves as a powerful socialization agent that influences public discourse and interpersonal interaction are plentiful in social science literature (Holtzman, 2000; McQuail, 2005; Signorielli & Morgan, 1990; Weimann, 2000). Lippmann (1922) suggests that the pictures in our heads are mainly constructs from the pictures we get from mass media. More recently, researchers refined Lippmann's notion by investigating how specific media content leads to the construction of related social realities (Mastero & Kopacz, 2006; Fujioka, Tan & Tan, 2000). As Gray (1995) argued, television is a contested terrain rather than a finished effect of powerful external determinants. Audiences, largely, possess the cognitive skills necessary to challenge mediated imagery; however, they may not possess the skill set necessary to assess the nuanced underpinnings of televised imagery. Audiences must recognize the linkages from current contextual mediated meanings to its origins in order to engage in dialogue and voice dissent. Hence, television acts as a productive point of engagement where struggles surrounding power, inequity, domination, and difference begin. Weimann (2000) suggests that television is not only the most powerful system of cultural diffusion but also the most pervasive agent of socialization.

Socialization is the total set of experiences in which people learn about norms and expectations and learn how to function as respected and accepted members of a culture (Holtzmann, 2000; Miller, 1999). Through socialization, people learn to enact a more limited set of behaviors based on the internalized dominant values and norms (Holtzmann, 2000). The logic underlying the thesis of media socialization is that media can teach norms and values by way of symbolic reward and punishment for different kinds of behavior (McQuail, 2005). In other words, media provide a framework for acceptable lifestyles and living, and prescribe acceptable actions and behaviors to audiences. Kellner (1995) says “[the] television... industry provides models of what it means to be male and female, successful or a failure, powerful or powerless... media culture helps shape the prevalent view of the world and its deepest values: it defines what is good or bad, positive or negative, moral or evil” (p. 1).

What makes television distinctive from other media is “its ability to standardize, streamline, amplify, and share common cultural norms with virtually all members of society” (Morgan & Signiorelli, 1990, p. 13). Its socially constructed versions of reality bombard nearly all classes and groups with the exact same perspectives.

SECTION- 2.1

Reality television has several definitions within existing scholarship (Orbe, 2008). Andrejevic (2004), Dowd (2006), Murray and Ouellette (2008), Nabi, Biely, Morgan, and Stitt (2003), and Orbe (2008) have all highlighted different aspects that help to create a complete definition ofthe genre. The basic definition of the reality genre is programs that film real people as they live out events (contrived or otherwise) in their lives, as these events occur. The majority of reality fare depicts common people engaging in uncommon tasks i.e., wilderness survival, international travel and common tasks i.e., dating, home redecorating, giving viewers the chance to compare and contrast their own lives with those of the shows protagonists (Rose & Wood, 2005). The genre, adapted and adopted primarily from British television, is wildly popular. In a typical week, reality programming fills four of the top ten slots of most watched shows (“Top Ten,” 2009). Moreover, reality shows on FOX, CBS, ABC, and CW, formally the WB, beat each network‟s average ratings in the 18 to 34-year-old demographic (Adalian, 2004).

While the reality realm represents television‟s newest genre, it also exemplifies the old adage „the more things change the more they stay the same.‟ Reality television is not the first genre to depict the domination of women by men, it simply represents the latest incarnation of misogyny-ridden television programming (Holtzmann, 2000). Several genres of popular television shows, from earlier decades including situation comedies such as: The Jeffersons and All in the Family; dramas such as: Dallas and NYPD Blue; and daytime soap operas such as: All My Children and General Hospital, blatantly display(ed) patriarchal and misogynistic ideologies (hooks, 1992). While social, economic, and political struggles continue to take place within the boundaries of reality television, it presents a new and more dangerous threat to viewers because it claims to represent authentic social interaction with truly authentic representations of people (Patton, 2006). Reality shows, however, are anything but “real.” They employ writers and directors who “construct” the most provocative “realities” at the lowest cost for networks. Dubrofsy (2006) states, “what occurs on reality television shows is a constructed fiction with the twist that real people create the fiction of the series” (p. 41). Thus, the narrative that reaches viewers is one that has been constructed, manipulated, manufactured, and edited to project the beliefs and ideologies of the storyteller. To the viewers, reality television shows may be seen as innocuous forms of voyeuristic entertainment (Yesil, 2001). However, when critically examined, reality shows, especially reality dating, appear to represent a means for dissemination and maintenance of ruling class ideologies that value men‟s power over women and white sensibilities over marginalized ways of knowing.

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Reality dating shows typically follow a formula that usually features women competing for a man‟s attention/affection/desire (Dubrofsky, 2006). And, it is the authors‟ contention that these shows are sexist at their core. These types of programs suggest that no academic, political, personal, or professional achievement is as important to women as a man selecting her to become “Mrs. [insert man‟s name here].” When a show with a sexist foundation is coupled with an overt display of racialized gender hegemony it creates an environment rife with misogynistic under and overtones. Regardless of a seeming array of reality dating shows, nearly all display the same misogynistic gender dynamics, and many of them boast the same characters: a male lead, or “Casanova,” and a large group of female contestants, his concubines. In shows like Flavor of Love, The Bachelor, My Antonio, Joe Millionaire, More to Love, Frank the Entertainer in a Basement Affair, For the Love of Ray J and Rock of Love, the “Casanova” is given free reign over his harem as he picks through the women to find the one he likes the most. While going through the process of finding a mate, the men have limitless opportunities for “lusty forays with many women who await the pleasure of being conquered” (Dubrofsky, 2006, p. 48). While the “Casanova” is depicted as a lover of women, he simultaneously enacts dominance over them by forcing each woman to engage in a competition where she must be more appealing (physically, sexually, etc.) than her counterparts in order to stay in the competition. Every episodic adventure allows the voyeuristic viewer to watch each contestant engage in an individual or small group challenge where the winner(s) receive dates with the male “prize.” And, despite the fact that he is intimately connected with most, if not all, of the women, they are expected to remain exclusively devoted to him. In fact, the women strategically allocate all of their attention and energy toward him in order to receive a small portion of his elusive attention in return.

They appear to crave his acknowledgment, as if they are empty vessels unless and/or until he notices them, fills them with his presence, and makes them the object of his gaze. Reality dating shows exemplify the “male gaze.” Mulvey (1975) first introduced the concept of the male gaze in her groundbreaking work that offered a feminist critique of Hollywood movies. Mulvey contends that film serves the political function of subjugating female bodies and experiences to the interpretation and control of a heterosexual male gaze. According to Mulvey, any viewers‟ potential to experience visual and visceral pleasure from watching Hollywood movies is completely predicated upon acceptance of a patriarchal worldview in which men look and women are looked at; men act and women are acted upon. She further contends that this distinctly male-oriented perspective perpetuates sexual inequality by forcing the viewer, regardless of gender, to identify with and adopt a perspective that dehumanizes women (Gamman & Marsh, 1989). Extending Mulvey's concept, Russell (1991) uses the term "dominant gaze" to describe the “tendency of American popular cinema to objectify and trivialize the racial identity and experiences of people of color, even when it purports to represent them” (p. 244). Like the “male gaze,” the “dominant gaze” “subtly invites the viewer to empathize and identify with its viewpoint as natural, universal, and beyond challenge; it marginalizes other perspectives to bolster its own legitimacy in defining narratives and images” (p. 244). While critics of both the “male” and “dominant” gaze suggest it is simplistic in its condemnation of Hollywood film, arguably, these notions of the gaze are an apparent and key component in the blueprint used to design many reality dating shows including Flavor of Love.

Flavor of Love offers hyperbolic performances of gender/race that shed light on gender/race performance and its relationship to “reality” and catapulted Vh1 to unprecedented popularity. Over six million viewers tuned in to the finale of the first season of Flavor of Love. A record breaking 7.5 million watched the season finale of Flavor of Love II, making it the number one telecast on cable the night it aired and the network‟s highest rated telecast ever (Jet, 2006). In addition, it‟s no surprise that the show was one of the most successful shows ever broadcast on Vh1. According to Geiger and Rutsky (2005), “successful films are those that are able to articulate prevailing cultural beliefs, effectively making them seem natural and universal rather than culturally and historically determined” (p. 25).

As noted, Flavor of Love follows the same proven formula for success as most reality dating shows; however, it brings together notions of gender and race, which creates a new complexity. Flavor of Love differs in that the concubines/harem cast is comprised almost exclusively of women of color, mainly African American. The show is not only reflective of conventional discourse surrounding gender but also of commonly held beliefs regarding race. While The Bachelor, and other shows with predominantly white casts like Rock of Love, More To Love, My Antonio, and Joe Millionaire, feature bachelors who are young, white, attractive, financially, and emotionally stable, Flavor of Love features William Drayton, Jr. also know as, Flavor Flav, a middle aged hip hop artist and ex-convict, as the show‟s male “prize.” Similarly, the women on white reality dating shows are typically young, white, beautiful, successful, and in search of genuine love. In contrast, the contestants on Flavor of Love are young, racial and/or ethnic, urban women portrayed as tawdry, promiscuous, gold-diggers.

The objectification of women in television and film has a longstanding history that transcends the boundaries of race. Images of women of color as lascivious, sexual deviants whose sole purpose is to be consumed by men have been a mainstay in popular culture for centuries (Hill- Collins, 2004). Consequently, the depictions of women of color are almost exclusively as one-dimensional sexual objects, and audiences come to understand them as such (Hill-Collins, 2004). According to Butler (1993), sex is materialized through an existing discourse. In failing to disseminate images and a discourse that displays the multi-faceted sexualities and femininities within marginalized groups, mainstream media are telling its viewers that (black) womanhood is static and predictable and that the dynamics present within manhood are simply nonexistent for women. In a society that is racist, sexist, and patriarchal at its core, the omission of divergent images of minority women works to preserve the interconnected systems of oppression that subjugate and devalue them (Hill- Collins, 2004). As such, “it has been typical for the media to utilize stereotypes disparaging females and minorities, and thereby perpetuate myths concerning their existence” (Eschholz, Bufkin, & Long, 2002, p. 300). In addition, these stereotyping practices advance a “common sense view of reality that is oppressive and exploitative of groups with less power in society” (Eschholz, Bufkin, & Long, 2002, p. 301).

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A critical discourse analysis of seasons one and two of Flavor of Love (11 episodes in season one and 12 episodes in season two) reveals the ways in which the show promotes the perpetuation of race based stereotypes and gender inequality, and reinforces Mulvey‟s (1975) and Russell‟s (1991) conclusions about audience viewing perspectives. CDA examines the enactment, reproduction, and resistance to social power abuse. In addition, it examines dominance and inequality through text and talk within social and political contexts. Critical discourse analysts seek to understand, expose, and ultimately resist social inequality. Therefore, it is the task of discourse analysts to explore the relationship between discourse and reality through an in-depth re-reading of the text (Hardy & Phillips, 2002). Consequently, this article will offer a close read and re-read of Flavor of Love paying particular attention to the intersections of race and gender because racial discourses, like discourses of sex/gender, are performative and work not to describe existing subjects, but rather to produce them (Atluri, 2009).

Analyzing televised stories allows the researcher to discover and reveal latent meanings and values that may not be apparent at a first viewing (Stokes, 2003; Yin, 2005). Because Vh1 has broadcast each season of Flavor of Love in its entirety, as well as released it on DVD, the researcher viewed each episode of season one and two individually, within the sequential context of that particular season, collectively, within and across specific seasons, and reflectively, viewing earlier episodes with knowledge of subsequent episodes/ seasons (Orbe, 1998). The findings are presented in the form of examples from the show. It is important to note that these are true exemplars of Flavor of Love and not isolated, exaggerated events, or anomalies that occurred during the two seasons of the show that are under review. While these scenes are not exaggerations, the researcher acknowledges that they are indeed constructions, born out of much work by producers and editors.

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The “visual” domination of the women begins during the show‟s introduction. As the music plays to introduce the show, the contestants in season one appear as blue faceless shadows in tiny black bikinis. One shadow kneels with her legs wide open facing the camera, while others lay on their backs giving the audience a full frontal view of their silhouetted bodies. Flavor Flav is the only non-shadow shown during the show‟s introduction. As the camera pans across the scattered, shadowed bodies, it finally focuses on Flav who is smiling as he admires the bikini-clad silhouettes before him. He is seen and heard laughing as he sits atop a throne while the shadows remain silent. The viewer has no idea which shadow represents which woman. This opening scene implies that contextual complexities inherent in each individual woman are neither relevant nor important. Moreover, this scene suggests that contestants on Flavor of Love represent a collective woman whose sole purpose is to service her man. And, Flavor Flav is that man. These cues serve as a precursor to the powerless and voiceless position the women in Flavor of Love assume throughout the show. It also makes Flav‟s purpose abundantly clear; he is there to gaze upon and rule over the shadows that inhabit his kingdom. This visual relationship between the male “prize” and female contestants may reinforce to the audience the underlying power dimension that privileges men over women.

Another instance of Flavor of Love’s perpetuation of the “male gaze” and visual power over the women is during the show‟s naming ceremony in the premiere episode of each season. In the naming ceremony, each women stands before Flava she looks them over and establishes suitable nomenclature for them. Flav scrawls sexualized and often misogynistic names on tags that he gropingly affixes to the women‟s breast and/or buttocks. A name is a unique personal identifier for an individual. It represents personal and often a cultural identity. A name can have symbolic and linguistic (connotative and/or denotative) meaning, and in many cultures, naming a child is an important and meaningful ritual. Flav literally takes the women‟s names away from them and replaces them with names like “Nibblez [sic],” “Payshintz [sic],” and “Red Oyster.” Flav named one contestant “Bootz [sic]” because he was eager to “knock boots” with her. 2 Another woman was given the name “Deelishis [sic]” because he wanted to taste her body and was sure it would be delicious. In fact, upon seeing “Deelishis [sic]” for the first time Flav stated, “Yo, when something‟s good to me it‟s delicious, that‟s going to be your name.” When the contestant turned around and proceeded to leave the room after receiving her new name Flav turned to the camera said, “She got a big table ass for real... you can have a picnic on her ass, for real!” Flav even named a contestant “Tik [sic]” because she, “...got a small head and a big ass... like a tick.”

These scenes, like the majority on the show, serve to illustrate to the audience that Flav has ultimate power and the women are there to serve purely as a sexual function with no power or recourse. Another example of the “male gaze” and subsequent dehumanization of the women throughout both seasons of the show is the call and response routine. The women on Flavor of Love have to respond to Flav‟s infamous catch phrase, “FLAAAAVOR FLAAAAAV” that might ring at any hour of the day or night. At the sound of the catcall, the contestants gather in an assembly area where they line up, virtually naked, and submit to a physical inspection by Flav. These scenes emphasize that, much like Mulvey‟s (1975) assertion of the cinematic apparatus of classical Hollywood cinema, reality television inevitably puts the spectator in a male oriented perspective forcing the viewer to adopt a frame where the figure of the woman on screen is the object of desire to be looked at.

Throughout the series, Flavor of Love is rife with male dominated scenarios. When Flavor Flav is asked what he wants in a woman, he explains that he wants a woman who will watch his kids while he is out partying, clean up around the house while he is on tour, and sexually please him even if he fails to sexually please her. Flav‟s desires illustrate his power and subsequent subordination of women by limiting their roles in his life to sexual satisfier, babysitter, cook, and maid. He reiterates this notion in an episode called She Works Hard for Her Honey, where contestants participated in a challenge called “hold down the fort.” During this challenge, Flav instructed a small group of women to clean up Warren G‟s mansion the morning after he hosted a large party.3 As the women cleaned toilets, washed dishes, and mopped floors, Flav looks directly into the camera and further subordinates the women by stating, “I wanna know a girl can keep my house clean.” In this scene, the “dominant gaze” is evident as the show continues a sordid history of televised depictions of women of color being reduced to a house- worker/servant/maid, which reinforces racial stereotypes to the viewers.

Flav‟s voracious sexual appetite is prominently on display throughout the show. He expects each woman to enthusiastically satisfy his sexual whims. In fact, in the episode Steppin' Out Flav Style, where one contestant is granted a private date on a yacht with Flav, his power over her and her complicity in gendered hegemony is evident as she arrives at the dock wearing a string bikini. As soon as she spots him, she bends over allowing her breasts to spill from her itty-bitty bikini top. Standing atop the yacht, Flav screams out her name, then looks directly into the camera, and declares, “I saw „New York‟ coming down the ramp and she looked SLAAAAAAAAMIN, made me almost fall off the boat” 4 Once she boards the boat, she begins to passionately kiss him, and between each deep and slow kiss says to him, “What would you like to drink?—I‟ll have it waiting for you on the rocks.” Flav then cups her breasts with both of his hands and lowers his mouth to her chest. He then begins to suck her nipples, and answers her question with a precocious reply—“milk.” “New York” laughs and willingly allows Flav to fondle her body while he repeatedly asks the question “Got milk?” “New York” illustrates her own complicity in becoming a sexual object by coyly replying, “You know I do.” This scene highlights the “male dominant gaze” by illustrating Flav‟s willingness to maintain and perpetuate a masculine ideology that encourages the sexual objectification and domination of women, and by “New York‟s” portrayal of a black women‟s eagerness to be used as a sexual satisfier for men like a modern day Jezebel (Author, 2008).

Flav controlled the destiny of the show‟s contestants who were living in the mansion. If they did not fulfill his wishes to his level of satisfaction, they risked elimination from the show. During the episode Flav is Blind, one contestant won a private date with Flav on a romantic gondola ride. At one point during the outing, Flav snuggled up to the contestant, nestled his face into her neck, and then tried to kiss her. She immediately recoiled. After sensing his disappointment, she explains to him that she does not feel comfortable kissing a man with whom she is not in a monogamous relationship. Her explanation and attempt at justification for her (in)action did not satisfy Flav. After the date ended, Flav reacted to the incident by telling the audience, “Honestly, how in the world would you [the contestant] expect for this to work with us, if I can‟t kiss you?” Another example of his control over the women occurred during a group date in the same episode, where Flav is blindfolded and fed by the women. A contestant, who recognized Flavs ability to control her destiny, offered an on- camera confession stating, “After a while when it started getting down there to the last few girls, it was like...man I ain’t trying to feed this guy, let me try to feed this guy me. Let me let him grab a butt cheek or something. Let me let him grab a nipple. Maybe I can let him grab my thigh, so I can stay around.”

Later in the same episode, a small group of contestants discussed the subject of having sex with Flav. One contestant says, “I think if anyone doesn‟t sleep with him, he definitely won‟t pick that person [to stay], unless you give a good blow job.” The show also illustrates how Flav‟s entitlement to ogle and grope the female contestants whenever and wherever he pleases. For instance, in the inaugural episode of season two called Sumthin's Stinkin' in the House of Flav, a buxom female contestant approached Flav wearing a body-hugging, low-cut dress that displayed her cleavage. As she sauntered toward him, Flav overtly stared at her exposed breasts as if transfixed and seemingly unable to concentrate on anything else. When the woman said, “I‟m up here Flav,” he responded by pointing at her cleavage and saying, “I can‟t help it. I‟m looking right here right about now.” During that same episode, Flav wanted to check on a contestant who had recently fallen ill. After searching for her and discovering that she was showering, he said “I walked around the house trying to find „Sumthin,‟ and I found out she was in the shower, so you know, a guy like me, you know, went over there and knocked on the door like bang, bang, bang, bang, bang!”5 Without her permission, he walked into the bathroom where she was showering and leered at her naked body through the glass shower doors as he spoke to her. Regardless of the contestants‟ implicit or explicit approval or disapproval, they are in visual positions of powerlessness, where not only Flav but also the viewers, gaze at them without consequence.

Flav further illustrated his license to invade the contestants‟ bodies in the season two episode, Jelly on the Telly, where he went on a one-on-one date with a woman to a strawberry patch. During the date, they proceeded to talk and flirt while they picked berries. However, as he walked behind her he stared lustfully at her buttocks through her skin-tight, hip- hugging jeans. She notices his antics and asks, “Flav, you gonna follow me?” He responds by saying, “You think I ain‟t following that?” and then proceeds to grope her. During his narration of the scene to the audience, he excitedly declares, “I could not keep my hands off of that ass! Bootylicious! Folks, you gotta feel it to see it... I mean, see it to feel it.” He continued to display sexual domination during the entire date by continuously feeling her rear end without invitation or permission. This was neither the first nor the last instance Flav groped contestants‟ bodies at his own discretion.

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Analyses of popular mediated depictions of minority women are critical because this imagery can have a direct impact on their lives and livelihood. Acknowledging the primitive, impulsive, hyper-sexualized, stereotypical trope that the women on the show represent may not be difficult for most viewers to discern; after all that is part of the shows “hook.” As previously mentioned, we view television as a contested terrain where audiences represent active participants in the process of constructing cultural and/or self-identity and can challenge mediated imagery.However, recognizing the elements of misogyny on display in the show is not the main issue here, nor is it that the depictions of minority female caricatures exist. The real problem is the lack of breadth of depictions present in the reality television landscape of, and for, women of color. Yes, contemporarily there are more people of color on fictional television shows like Grays Anatomy, Law and Order, and CSI, however, more visibility does not always mean greater representation. And, what few representations do exist are merely functions of the hegemonic media machine and are delivered with painful amounts of white liberal guilt.

Flavor of Love is not harmful because women of color will internalize or act out the absurdity of the women portrayed on the show in their real lives. On the contrary, since reality television shows, like Flavor of Love, place audiences in masculine viewing positions, the real harm comes from the interpersonal interactions real women of color have in their everyday lives. These interactions may be impacted by another viewer‟s exposure to the popular show, or from others‟ preconceived notions surrounding black womanhood that may be informed by exposure to the show. Media consumers transfer knowledge obtained from the media to other contexts because “the distorted appraisal of a subsequent stimulus induced by activation is unlikely to be consciously corrected” (Hansen & Hansen, 1988, p. 290). In other words, Flavor of Love viewers who are exposed, in real life situations, to black women who do not embody the stereotypic portrayals of African American women found on the show, won‟t consciously correct their impressions formed from mediated depictions.

Ironically, Flavor Flav served as a front man for one of the most radical black rap groups of that era, Public Enemy, which provided motivation and inspiration for young black men seeking liberation from the chains of “imperialist white supremacist capitalist patriarchy” (hooks, 2004). Today Flavor Flav is far from a revolutionary figure. As the protagonist in Flavor of Love, his radical agency is neutralized. Through depictions of him as unthinking and uncivilized, the hegemonically situated media have stripped him of all cultural capital. Moreover, Flav‟s reward for relinquishing his cultural currency gained him fame, fortune, and power over women. Flav was placed in a position to judge, demean, select, scold, and reward women without repudiation. This ascribed power reinforced the notion that women can be (figuratively) bought by men who might otherwise be seen as undesirable, but for their access to capital. And, it suggests that women are not only complicit but also willing participants in a system that offers their lives, livelihood, bodies, and values to the man who represents the highest bidder. This distinctly male-oriented perspective insidiously perpetuates sexual inequality by forcing the viewer, whether male or female, to identify with and adopt a perspective which objectifies and dehumanizes women.

Ultimately, the byproducts from Flavor of Love are not only detrimental to the shows participants, but also to young male viewers who are encouraged to perpetuate the “male dominant gaze,” and young women who are encouraged to enjoy and participate in the process of being looked at. Hence, it is important for those who repeatedly expose themselves to Flavor of Love to remain critically vigilant. Critical vigilance allows viewers to recognize the troubling (racist and sexist) stereotypes that the show‟s cast embodies and perpetuates. This is especially important for women, who according to Mulvey (1975) are only able to achieve true equality in societal relationships if they make a concerted effort to deconstruct and disrupt the male gaze. Critical vigilance empowers viewers to engage in the kind of necessary discourse whereby imagery is critiqued, dissected, and rearticulated in such a way that the power dynamic no longer rests solely in the hands of the image creator(s) but also in the hands of the image recipients. This can only happen if viewers engage in a thorough re-reading of the text. Re-reading Flavor of Love allows viewers to recognize ties between the insidious nature of the race/gender caste that is depicted on television and that exists within American culture. It also provides viewers with an opportunity to employ postmodernism by rejecting traditional power structures and empowering themselves to extract new meanings from a modernist text like Flavor of Love. These new ways of knowing can serve as a means for a redistribution of power. It is essential for marginalized groups, those rendered powerless by the hierarchal and hegemonic social structures, to engage in semiotic guerrilla warfare to empower themselves.

Semiotic guerrilla warfare is a term taken from Umberto Eco by John Fiske to describe a strategy employed by marginalized groups as a means to resist dominant ideology in “the constant struggle between domination and subordination (Fiske, 1989 p. 18). Subordinate groups execute this strategy by constructing counter hegemonic meanings for media texts. In other words, a close re-reading of Flavor of Love can provide a person of color with the tools necessary to detect the historic and contemporary connections between stereotypical media portrayals and the real world implications that follow. Further, re-reading might even serve as an impetus for women of color to affront the systemic oppression they might face. In other words, as young minority female viewers recognize that their bodies exist for the consumption of men anywhere, anytime, and that sexual trespasses are normal in the world of reality television, they can empower themselves by choosing a lifestyle that confounds, refutes, and rearticulates this notion in their everyday lives.

The discourse surrounding this study's analysis elucidate the author‟s view that current media practices within the reality dating genre of television are problematic--not only for women of color, but for all viewers. It is the hope however, that this interrogation leads to new ways of being, new forms of organizing, and new forms of resistance for viewers and those whose lives are impacted by shows like Flavor of Love. This area of research is critical for a number of reasons. First, media (re)presentations of women, specifically women of color, are especially harmful because women are often assumed to represent their entire race and gender through their personal choices and actions (Hill- Collins, 2000; hooks, 1992). Secondly, though there is an abundance of media imagery of blacks engaging in misogyny, sexism, and violence against women, generally speaking, blacks do not consider these urgent issues (Rose, 2004). According to Rose (2004), blacks still think the most urgent issues that warrant action within their community are racism, police brutality, and black male oppression. Arguably two out of three of these issues disproportionately impact men. When male centric issues represent the nexus of concern for any community, issues that impact women (within that community) are negated, nullified, and viewed as superfluous. The goal of this research—to encourage audiences to critique seemingly transparent images on screen through the lens of a cultural critic— spotlights an issue (the subordination of women) that women and men within the black community must see as critical and worthy of exploration and action.

Scholars should investigate the inner-workings of gender/race inequality while siphoning out the features of masculinity that produce relations of domination and those that do not. By investigating the hegemonic strata‟s depiction of marginalized groups that exist in mainstream mediated texts, scholars have the capacity to go beyond defining all valued characteristics of men as hegemonic and can begin to identify the subtleties and intricacies that impact the conditions of domination and subordination in Western culture. Critical discourse analysts must continue to find ways to examine, critique, and subvert the “male gaze.” In addition, they must heed the call of Schippers (2007) who encouraged scholars to engage in the development of theory that places relations of domination back into the center of gender hegemony rather than continue to use hegemonic masculinity as a catch all for all practices of men.

Notes

Semiotic guerilla warfare is expanded upon further in the discussion section of this article.

Knocking boots is an urban expression synonymous for having sex.

Warren G is a hip-hop legend and personal friend of Flavor Flav

“New York” was the name Flav prescribed to the contestant.

“Sumthin” is the name Flav prescribed to the contestant.

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francescamaxime · 4 years

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5-week course: Embodied Anti-Racism: A Mindfulness Way for Therapists and Helping Professionals

LEARN ABOUT THE COURSE HERE:

5-week course: Embodied Anti-Racism: A Mindfulness Way for Therapists and Helping Professionals

ENROLL HERE:

A Five-Week Course for Examining Our Inner World So We Can Help Our Outer World

DATES: Call 1: Oct 21st Call 2: Oct 28th Call 3: Nov 4th Call 4: Nov 11th

Call 5: Nov 18th

Welcome,

I invite you to join me for Embodied Anti-Racism, a new course that uses mindfulness principles and a body-oriented approach in the journey of becoming anti-racist therapists and helping professionals. This course has been in development for over a year, and I am so excited to finally open it to the public.

Many of you likely have some understanding of somatic tools and the power of mindfulness practices. So it will be familiar to you when we use those resources to work with what comes up as we address racism in a deeper context. And we can all use this deepened awareness in order to offer our best to our clients—even if we don’t see many clients of color at the moment.

In my own personal journey as a Haitian-Dominican Italian-American multiethnic woman, it was my spiritual mentor Jack Kornfield who encouraged me down the path to becoming more enlightened about racism. Since that time in 2015, I have dedicated my life to educating myself about how racism shows up in therapeutic interactions. During this journey, I unexpectedly discovered that my mindfulness and somatic training have been invaluable allies...

...but trying to do this work alone is overwhelming.

When we try to untangle the many knots of racism woven through the whole fabric of our society, many of us get stuck in our minds and feel alone in our thoughts, with no one to talk to who can help us sort them out. In this course, we will be creating a community for discussing our experiences, teasing apart our confusion, and sharing our struggles. Because in community, this work becomes so much easier.

As a group, we will learn how to pause and examine our shame or traumatic experiences in the moment. We will unpack what it means to be a ‘white person’ and a racialized being. We will also look at neuroscience and Polyvagal Theory to better understand how our mind and body may react when issues of race come up. We will learn to use mindfulness and self-regulation to increase our ability to be fully present for ourselves and our clients.

We need to use both the left and right sides of our brains in our unlearning of racism.

Too many other diversity and cultural competency courses fall short because they focus on trying to be “PC” instead of diving in and interrogating whiteness. I don’t want to simply tell you what you should do to be a non-racist—I want to guide you along your journey of discovering how to be an embodied anti-racist.

As Michelle Obama said, “Make no mistake about it: There are still so many causes worth sacrificing for. There is still so much history yet to be made." So, as a community of helping professionals, I encourage you to join me on this journey together!

Warmly, Francesca Maximé

1) Five Pre-recorded Teaching Modules

2) Five Live Q&A Calls

3) Private Membership Site to Access Transcripts & Downloads

A UNIQUE INTEGRATIVE APPROACH

Mindfulness is opening our awareness to include the ability to intentionally notice what we're actually, presently experiencing, without judgment. Incorporating mindfulness in our anti-racism work can help us meet this moment and understand ourselves as racialized beings, without getting lost in fear, anger, or shame.

Working with Parts invites us to become more familiar with the various aspects of ourselves that long for our wise and compassionate understanding. As we increase compassion for our parts, we are able to show up as a more emotionally responsible, mature adult and stay present in situations pertaining to race.

Neuroscience and the Polyvagal Theory give us an understanding of how our minds and bodies may react when issues of race arise. Using these lenses can helps us understand how to better regulate our nervous systems and transform our responses so that we can act from a place of calm connectedness. Incorporating neuroscience shows us that our brains are malleable and we have the power to change.

Attachment Theory illuminates places of rupture in our lives that may be preventing us from finding our grounded self able to do this complex work. Recognizing rupture in our lives allows us to move into a state of repair. And as we repair those parts of ourselves, we will be more firmly rooted in our self-worth and able to lean in to anti-racism work.

“Racism cuts us off from our humanity. And the worst part is we don’t even know how disconnected we are. If you want to be an anti-racist, you have to be clear about how bad the dehumanization is and do the work to allow yourself to feel again and get reconnected to people.”

— Stoop Nilsson, LMSW, a racial re-education coach, strategist, and organizer

WHO IS THIS FOR?

All Helping Professionals are Welcome

Anyone who sees themselves in a helping role is invited to join us. Participants may be therapists, licensed psychologists, psychiatrists, mental health counselors, marriage and family therapists, or social workers, but you could also be a massage therapist, mindfulness teacher, yoga instructor, professor, business executive, organizational leader, teacher, daycare owner, pastoral counselor, or spiritual guide.

We Welcome All Races

We've all had different life experiences. People of all races, especially those with white skin privilege or light skin racial advantage, are encouraged to join us to share their unique experiences and help us further our learning as we work to become embodied anti-racists.

We Extend a Special Invitation to White Professionals

The majority of therapists are white women, meaning that this population has the potential to create significant change. As a multiethnic woman who’s had the lived experience of living with light-skin privilege, I was still quite ignorant until I started my anti-racism journey five years ago. I understand you don’t want to feel guilty, to feel like you’re doing it wrong, or to say the wrong thing. My goal is to help you understand yourself as a racialized being so that you can be more fully embodied and present with people who may not look like you.

“Francesca, not sure I have the words to express the level of gratitude for your session today… As a woman who identifies as white, I witnessed how today’s session was no less (in fact, I think even more from what I could see) healing for the women of color than for me.”

— LB

WHAT'S INCLUDED?

1) FIVE PRE-RECORDED TEACHING MODULES

Join Francesca for five pre-recorded training videos where you will learn how to use mindfulness in your work as an anti-racist.

2) FIVE LIVE Q&A CALLS

Each week we'll come together to discuss current events and identify places where we see systemic racism in our daily lives. We'll also have time to answer questions that come up as you move through your journey.

3) PRIVATE MEMBERSHIP SITE TO ACCESS TRANSCRIPTS & DOWNLOADS

Find all your course materials in the user-friendly membership site. Each training is available in video and audio format so you are able to download and own all the content.

PLUS THESE BONUSES…

FIVE EXPERT TRAINING VIDEOS

1) Accepting Your Assignment with Dr. Jack Kornfield

What happens if you see the act of changing society as an assignment instead of a source of shame and guilt? Dr. Kornfield explores the idea that our culture is in the midst of a difficult process that will eventually give birth to something new. He and Francesca also discuss Buddha, Dharma, holding suffering with compassion, and creating a safe, honorable, and inclusive space for all.

2) Sociocultural and Sociopolitical Considerations for Mindfulness with Dr. Shelly P. Harrell

Making the assumption that race and racism are not relevant if a client is white is not accurate. We need to look at the interconnectedness of our world to see how all clients are reacting. In this interview, Dr. Harrell shares 10 considerations to integrate mindfulness into anti-racist psychotherapy practice. Shelly and Francesca also discuss evolving wokeness, social ecology, and a four-part conceptualization of mindfulness.

3) Whiteness on the Couch with Dr. Natasha Stovall

When the issue of whiteness comes up in therapy sessions, it often feels uncomfortable and is thus often ignored in subtle and not-so-subtle ways. But why? Author of "Whiteness on the Couch," Dr. Natasha Stovall, joins Francesca to explore whiteness, how it shows up in the therapy room, and how to use therapeutic tools to process conversations pertaining to race with a greater sense of curiosity, grace, and insight. Francesca and Natasha also discuss race as a variable, dynamics of perceived and structural superiority and power, our individualistic culture, and the difference between a person's internal experience and outward actions.

4) Everyday Racism with Susan Cousins

Is racism different in different parts of the world? Author Susan Cousins, MBACP (Snr. Acred), works with diverse populations in Wales, and shares some of the challenges the U.K. faces in navigating issues pertaining to racial equity, including the popular terminology used to describe non-white populations, BAME: Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic. Susan talks about her book, "Overcoming Everyday Racism: Building Resilience and Wellbeing in the Face of Discrimination and Microaggression." She lays out six categories of wellbeing with Francesca, including limits, boundaries, empowerment, and the impact of reporting a hate crime.

5) The Racist Part in You with Dr. Dick Schwartz

The more unburdening we do, the more change we can create. Founder of Internal Family Systems (IFS), Dr. Richard Schwartz, discusses what he sees as the four legacy cultural burdens of the United States: patriarchy, individualism, materialism, and racism. Dick and Francesca also look at how IFS can help us work with potentially racist parts of ourselves, how we can use IFS in our work with diverse client populations, and the intention of collective unburdening.

HERE’S WHAT WE'LL LEARN TOGETHER IN

Embodied Anti-Racism: A Mindfulness Way for Therapists and Helping Professionals

Module 1: What Does it Mean to be an Embodied Anti-Racist?

Many structures in our culture have been systemized for decades and have racism cooked into them. If we want to create change, we first have to look at ourselves. Mindfulness is the tool we will use to examine different parts of ourselves, our bodily reactions, and any trauma that lies in our pasts. In this module, we will explore the history that we weren’t taught in school and how our bodies and minds react to this information.

In this module, we will discuss:

The difference between ‘anti-racist’ and ‘non-racist’

The Four Humble Abodes

Attachment Theory and Relationality

Scarcity mentality versus Abundance mentality

Where suffering originates

Understanding your Social Location/Positionality

Module 2: Whiteness & Privilege: Systems We’ve Inherited

Many of us associate racism with an individual bad actor. As long as we don’t see ourselves as racist, then we get to be the ‘good’ people. This belief prevents us from actually seeing the systems in our culture that influence our neurophysiology and our neurobiology. In reality, we are inheritors of systems created long before we were born. In this module, we will use mindfulness to cultivate an awareness of these deeply ingrained systems and recognize their effects on us and what we can do about it.

In this module, we will discuss:

What is ‘Whiteness?’

How belonging and interdependence sustain ourselves and our communities

Polyvagal Theory and the nervous system in relation to mindfulness

Cultural Somatics that exist in our daily life

The power behind privilege

Shifting from feeling shame to feeling empowered

Module 3: Racial Identity Development

Many of us are all familiar with various models of human development, such as those formulated by famous clinicians Freud, Erikson, and Piaget. In this module, we will turn our attention to the Stages of Racial Identity Development created by Dr. Janet Helms. We will discuss all six stages through the framework of what a white person may experience so we can better understand where we are in our own awareness of our identity as racialized beings.

In this module, we will discuss:

Each stage: Contact, Disintegration, Reintegration, Pseudo Independence, Immersion/Emersion, Autonomy

The purpose of guilt and shame

How we can be both white and anti-racist at the same time

Seeing white individuals as racial beings

Reclaiming your heritage

Module 4: Allyship: Are You ‘For’ or ‘With?’

Allies are necessary in the fight against racism. In the past, many allies have engaged in their work with good intentions, however, the outcomes may not have sustained the intended impact. The important question here is, who were they trying to help and why? What is the deepest intention behind the offering? In this module, we will examine how to be present with and attuned to our impulses to help. This approach is important because it can lead us to more appropriate and effective directions of embodied service, as well as allow us to be more compassionate toward ourselves and others. We will learn the difference between trying to save communities and collectively supporting our shared community.

In this module, we will discuss:

What it means to be ‘for’ and ‘with’

What it means to be a white savior

The core mindfulness principle that will create a more collaborative partnership between you and your client

How to bring up race in session in a way that may offer greater safety for your clients

Shadism and colorism

Module 5: Grief Work: Collective & Individual

“There is a crack in everything. That's how the light gets in.” ― Leonard Cohen Grief is often seen as somber, but there are ways that we can support ourselves in our sorrow that also celebrate our shared joy. As we use mindfulness to shift our perspective, we see that our heartbrokenness can be an opportunity for something new to emerge. In this module, we will explore grieving the systems, beliefs, and behaviors that we inherited, both from an individual perspective and as a collective community. We will turn our attention to creating a new way of being grounded in wise, embodied, compassionate, anti-racist action.

In this module, we will discuss:

How grief feels in our bodies

The difference between grief and shame

The idea of ‘Spiritual Bypassing’

Creating our collective liberation

Embodied Anti-Racism: A Mindfulness Way for Therapists and Helping Professionals

If you are a helping professional of color, please accept our discounted enrollment price for this course by clicking here. We are glad to have you with us!

PLUS THESE SPECIAL BONUSES:

FIVE Expert Training Videos

1) Accepting Your Assignment with Jack Kornfield

2) Sociocultural and Sociopolitical Considerations for Mindfulness with Shelly P. Harrell

3) Whiteness on the Couch with Natasha Stovall

4) Everyday Racism with Susan Cousins

5) The Racist Part in You with Dick Schwartz

When are the Live Call Dates?

All calls will be held on Wednesdays at 12pm MT/2pm ET for 60 minutes.

Call 1: Oct 14th Call 2: Oct 21st Call 3: Oct 38th Call 4: Nov 4th Call 5: Nov 11th

We will reserve November 18th for a make-up call if necessary.

Do I have to be a therapist to take this course?Collapse

Nope! This course is open to all helping professionals, including, but not limited to, talk therapists, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health counselors, couples therapists, sex therapists, massage therapists, cranial sacral therapists, mindfulness teachers, and professors or academic teachers.

Is this course Live or Recorded?Collapse

This course is unique in that it includes live calls and pre-recorded content. All of the live calls will also be recorded for you to watch at your convenience. All sessions are available in video, audio, and transcript format and can be downloaded.

Can I get CEs

Yes, this course is pending approval for 10 CEs. Full information on CEs can be found here.

What is Academy of Therapy Wisdom

The Academy of Therapy Wisdom is an inspiring, multidimensional platform for learning, with courses & videos that are easy to use, access & digest. Our goal is to help you become a more confident, capable & compassionate therapist who works with their clients in a new way.

REGULAR PRICE

$497

INTRODUCTORY OFFER

$347

Join Francesca Maximé for this special five-week online training course

If you are a helping professional of color, please accept our discounted enrollment price for this course by clicking here. We are glad to have you with us!

0 notes

beatemporium · 5 years

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Recording with Pendo & Leah Zawose and Wamwiduka in 2019 and 2020

Part 1: British Council Trip February 2019

Having spent a small but influential portion of my childhood in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, I was over the moon to be returning to take part in a music production and education project set up by the British Council. I’d be going out into the heat of sub-Saharan summer with accomplished guitarist, fellow music producer and regular collaborator, Tom Excell, to be part of a project I’d been dreaming about for 15 years. I held such fond memories of Tanzania; remembering street corners piled high with infinitely juicy oranges, the lush smell of a tropical climate next to the Indian Ocean, and the warm smiles of the Swahili people, always welcoming with cheeky curiosity. Exiting the airport I felt a strong sense of home wash over me as these thoughts returned to me expectantly.

I was excited to meet the musicians we knew so little about, that would soon change not only my perception of rhythm, but my outlook on what it means to write music from the soul. I discovered that writing and performing music for these particular Tanzanians isn’t so much a creative endeavour or choice, but a necessity. An unstoppable thirst for creative expression that defines they way that they live.

Our roll call was at 10am the morning after we arrived, but with Tom suffering from a mild bout of yellow fever (as a reaction to the jab he had had a few days before) I timidly arrived by myself at Nafasi Arts Space in the Mikocheni area of Dar es Salaam. Aziza Ongala, the creative brain behind the project, arranged us in a circle on the dusty dance floor of the outdoor space for an introductory meeting. There were the four boys in Wamwiduka band, all in their early twenties and wearing trendy clothes - purposefully ripped jeans, slogan T Shirts and a combination of beaded, dreaded and threaded hair that oozed style. None of them spoke more than a few words of English and with my Swahili embarrassingly bad, our introductions were limited to a thumbs up, smiles and hand slap thumb click combo that would be become the standard greeting. The Zawose sisters were next; Pendo & Leah, accompanied by Pendo’s 11 month old son, introduced themselves with a few words in Swahili that were translated for my benefit - they were excited about our collaboration, and had an open mind coming in to the project. Music to my ears! I fumbled a similar introduction for myself that was translated into Swahili, sweating in the 30 degree heat.

Having done a small amount of research beforehand, I had discovered that Pendo was the daughter, and Leah the granddaughter of the late Dr Hukwe Zawose of the Gogo tribe from central Tanzania. Hukwe had found fame with Real World records in the 90s singing and playing traditional instruments such as the illimba (a large thumb piano), zeze (similar to a kora as found in west Africa) and chizeze (similar to a violin). He had supported Peter Gabriel as part of his Growing Up world tour, and become a beacon of East African music when ‘world music’ was getting a first wave a recognition among western audiences. He brought the Zawose family to the UK for the 2000 WOMAD Festival, and released three albums with the label before his untimely death in 2003 from AIDS. Dr Zawose was highly regarded in his own country too, performing for the then President Julius Nyerere under whom Tanzanian arts and culture flourished. He started the Bagamoyo College of Arts in his home town and taught his large family (which consists of 7 wives and 14 children) how to play the music of the Wagogo. Later on I found out that Pendo’s brother, Charles Zawose, had become the de facto band leader when Hukwe had died, but in tragic circumstances Charles was also to succumb to AIDS only a year after his father. The family still perform occasionally, but their days of making a living as a large travelling music troupe are over. In this moment, we realised that Pendo & Leah have an opportunity to take the torch for their family legacy - not only as incredibly talented multi-instrumentalists and singers, but also as women, breaking the mould of their family’s patriarchal past. Their music is psychedelic in parts - motifs repeated with entrancing effects, topped with powerful voices in harmony, and intricate poly-rhythmic drum and percussion parts that bring an upbeat energy. As our relationship with them and their music developed, we realised how important it was to give these women a platform equivalent to the men in their family, and raise the profile of the Zawose name once again.

Wamwiduka tell a different story. The young men are from a small village just outside Mbeya, itself a small town in the far south west of Tanzania. The band consists of Brown as lead singer and banjo player, Peter on shakers and backing vocals, Matcha on a hand bass drum, and Zacharia on babatone, a large homemade instrument resembling something not too far away from an upright bass. The story goes that Brown, devoted to being a musician from a young age, learned to play the banjo from his father, as well as how to build the instrument out of a sauce pan and cow hide, with cycling brake wire for strings. On the daily long walk to gather water for his family, Peter would accompany him, begging him to let him learn too so they could perform together. Peter made his shakers from coffee tins with seeds inside and hand carved wooden handle, developing a highly intricate and energetic performance style. Later Zacharia and Matcha joined, forming a band that would get their whole village dancing on street corners as they honed their craft. Once old enough, they decided to leave the village and travel the 850km across the country to Dar es Salaam, where they stood a chance of making it as professional musicians. With just their instruments on their backs, they would busk in towns along the way to collect enough money for the bus fare to get to the next town, or hitch rides wherever possible. Their heady mix of upbeat banjo-led 3 chord progressions, fast syncopated drums, and 2- and 3-part harmony instantly puts you on your feet, conjuring feelings of island life and care-free joy. Upon arriving in Dar es Salaam, they gigged relentlessly until noticed, building up a reputation as one of Tanzania's most exciting contemporary young bands.

So it was with this knowledge that we set out in February 2019 to form a supergroup band consisting of the Zawose women, the four young men in Wamwiduka, Kenyan musicians Ambassa Mandela & Dunga, myself and Tom. We felt very fortunate to be involved and exposed to such inspired musicians, so decided to record as much of it as possible. During the project organised by Aziza (herself the daughter of Tanzanian music royalty, Remmy Ongala) we delivered 4 days of music production workshops in Dar es Salaam, and in Stone Town Zanzibar, as well as performing three 45 minute long sets of original material. On one down day, we took a memorable trip to Bagamoyo - the home of the Zawose women. We spent it on the beach swimming, dancing and laughing, but most importantly, jamming. It was here that I realised how important musical expression is to all of these musicians... they just did not stop! Here we were on our ‘relax’ day, having been rehearsing in a small hot room for 5 days straight, and there wasn’t a single moment in the day where someone wasn’t performing. Their thirst for music is unquenchable - they sing while waiting for the bus, dance across the beach, teach each other banjo while relaxing in the shade. They are singing about the plight of their people, love gained (never lost), and about their gratitude for the experiences they are having through music. There is something about this pure self-reflection and relentless positivity that is so different from western musical culture, and so uplifting. Even if you don’t understand the words, this spirit translates effortlessly through the music. I challenge anyone to listen and watch without a smile from ear to ear.

Our second and only other collective down day was in Zanzibar. We were all staying together in a typical Zanzibari guest house, complete with rooftop breakfast bar. It was on this rooftop, with its shaded area and view of Stone Town ferry port that we built a small recording setup using the equipment we were touring with. By this time I had gotten used to recording East Africa style - with 10 microphone cables of which only 5 worked, and the imminent threat of the power cutting out at any moment - so I knew I had to be clever with my microphone choices and quick in order to capture it all. The Zawose women were downstairs in one of the rooms, writing with the help of Tom and Dunga, while I recorded a rousing 3 song performance from Wamwiduka. Their music is very high energy, and knowing that they are used to playing to excitable audiences I hit record and jumped around like a maniac on the rooftop while they were playing, to make up for the lack of crowd. My questionable ‘mzungu’ dancing got a good few laughs in between the songs and I think we managed to capture their energetic performance.

Next up were the Zawoses who had written their first ever pair of songs. We couldn’t believe it, but such is the strength of the family patriarchy, that the women were never encouraged to put forward their own compositions for performance with the family. The first song, Sauti Ya Mama, was about Pendo's new role as the mother of a son. Baby Yussufu was with us on the trip and just before coming up to the rooftop to record the song, Pendo had been breastfeeding. It felt like the perfect time to record such a personal song, with Yussufu just out of sight but certainly not mind. Tom joined on guitar and a performance was recorded with two illimba thumb pianos and the voices live, with the sound of the nearby port bleeding into the background. As their act is made up of just the two of them, we decided to record some extra drum and percussion parts over the top to give the performance more energy. I watched how Pendo played the ngoma (drum) on every single beat that I did not expect her to play, and missed out every beat my western trained rhythmic brain had expected. All the while it felt like she was dancing simultaneously - a remarkable sight.

Part 2: Recording in Bagamoyo, February 2020

Once we had carried out all of our performances and the project for the British Council completed, Tom and I headed back to the UK. We spent the next 3 or 4 months sporadically working on the tracks we had recorded, adding subtle percussion and bass elements in order to make the production fuller, without taking away from the traditional aspects of the songs and performance. We resolved to return as soon as feasibly possible so we could complete full length recordings with the artists.

Towards the end of 2019, our plans started to come into fruition, and we enlisted the brilliant and enthusiastic help of Pepe Waziri in order to make it a reality. She conferred with the artists, acting as de facto manager for both groups, in a stroke of fortune Tom’s UK band Onipa had been booked to play at Sauti za Busara festival so would be in the area already during February 2020 already, and we felt like the opportunity to get out there and make these records had to be taken. We carried out meetings with UK based record labels specialising in releasing music from Africa, and they were enthusiastic about partnering to work with us on the project, giving us the guarantee of financial support to make it possible. We also received an extremely generous donation from Sue Huxtable, my old school headteacher in Tanzania that enabled us to pay for our initial costs. The next month was spent frantically organising all aspects of the trip - we decided that the location should be Bagamoyo so as to be close to the Zawose family, and found a pair of houses in a small cul de sac where we could stay and also record undisturbed. The Wamwiduka guys would travel from Dar es Salaam to be with us for enough time to record their album in a live setting, as we realised the Zawose record would involve more composition and potentially a deeper level of production. Once all aspects of the trip were in place, we booked our flights and were able to put more thought into the musical development of the project, listening to the music of Hukwe Zawose for inspiration.

We arrived and went straight from the airport to the house in Bagamoyo to meet Pepe and unload our equipment. We felt prepared technically, but with no real plan for how the music was going to play out. We had an incredibly tall order for the two weeks ahead, taking on the recording and partial writing of two entire albums - something that we would have spent months working on had it been done in the UK. Despite this, it all felt very immediate: the musicians seemed to have no lapses in energy or confidence, and we were able to keep up with the pace by working into the early hours each evening after the musicians went home. In order to break up the recording and give some variety to the sound, we decided to do some of the recording on the beach less than a mile from our house and home studio. We took Wamwiduka and a small portable setup with us in Pepe’s 7-seater car, setting up in a big fire pit at the back of the beach to avoid the wind. Wamwiduka performed around 8 songs in this setting as the sun went down, including an a cappella version of one of their songs, and a few that Brown sang without accompaniment. Once we had recorded and incredible 19 songs with Wamwiduka over the course of 3 days, we listened to them all as a group and chose the 12 that we felt best worked together to give the record variety and depth. What we’ve ended up with is a collection of performances that represents their sound completely - from the high octane songs as performed in their live set, to the more intimate performances where Brown’s rich voice tells stories of a life of struggle, and love for his companions.

The album with Pendo and Leah required a bit more planning and involvement on our part. On the first day, we were told that 4 songs had been written for the purpose of this recording, and a potential 5th existed as a collaboration with Leah’s father (also Pendo’s brother), known to us simply as Baba Leah. We were told he had played with Hukwe as part of his band, and specialised in the chizeze and zeze instruments which we had heard on Hukwe’s recordings. Setting out to record the songs already written, we helped develop them structurally and led the women through building up the production on the tracks bit by bit, making decisions as to what instruments might work on which songs as we went. We decided to keep some tracks in their bare forms, opting to maintain the traditional elements, but when it came around to writing new songs we started with an electronic beat that Tom or I programmed, in order to give Pendo & Leah a foundation to write on top of. They responded amazingly well to this - sometimes writing verses in a matter of a few minutes and being totally open to our ideas for the backing tracks. In total we wrote 4 songs from scratch in this way during our time with them. On two particularly special days recording with the Zawoses, Baba Leah graced us with his musical skill and enlightening company. We never asked his age, but his spirited performances belied his years and thin frame - proof that music really does keep the soul alive. His bright eyes lit up as soon as he started singing, and we found ourselves uncontrollably drawn to this experienced performer who had needed help getting out of the car, but could hop and skip around the room with ease when performing. We travelled with the Zawoses for a short recording session on the beach as well, only 50m down from where we had seen videos of Pendo’s late brother Charles make his final group performance before his sad death. It felt like such an honour to be entrusted with capturing their music - this music style that has been passed down for many generations through the Wagogo people.

Amazingly, on the day before we left, we were able to complete the recording for the Zawose’s album. 12 tracks in total that tell stories from the plight of their people, to feelings of collective hope in humanity. After making some video and photo content to use as part of the promotion, our job (for the time being) was done and we departed from Bagamoyo with our heads held high. Great friendships had been developed, as well as a huge amount of excitement for the next chapter of their story. A particularly special moment was when Peter, the shaker player in Wamwiduka, was leaving the Bagamoyo house. He shouted through the open window in his broken English ‘I love you guys, all so much’ with a huge grin spread across his face. It’s this completely genuine display of emotion and enthusiasm that fills the music of both groups, transcending language and borders to uplift the soul of anyone who listens. We really hope you enjoy it!

#recording #tanzania #eastafrica #britishcouncil #zawose #wamwiduka

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wionews · 7 years

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#Metoo campaign: Is it the weapon of the weak?

Harvey Weinstein’s infamous serial abuse of women actresses in Hollywood has indeed changed the world. It has prompted women, all over, to come out and speak about sexual harassment openly, making the #MeToo campaign go insanely viral. A follow-up poll by ABC News Washington Post found that sexual harassment in the US was a full-blown epidemic with 54 per cent women responding that they have faced such harassment, 30 per cent facing harassment at work and 25 per cent facing harassment from men who had power over the careers.

In a country like the US, where awareness about sexual harassment as well as laws and institutional policies that deter it is prevalent, such staggering high numbers of harassment instances are indeed eye-opening. As a follow-up to the events, Raya Sarkar, a student of law at UC Davis, who hails from India, has curated a list that identifies academics in India’s leading educational institutions and Indian origin academics in the West, who have supposedly sexually harassed their students.

The list is alive and growing, and it has already identified 70 professors, many of whom have had significant academic accomplishments.

Kafila feminists have followed the same vanguardism that makes leftists unpopular amongst likeminded non-left progressives, who would otherwise broadly agree on issues.

As an observer, who has followed the debate with some degree of seriousness, I have little new to add about sexual harassment that has not already been discussed so far. I would rather prefer to discuss the debate. I ardently believe that sexual harassment in academia is a burning issue that needs to be addressed right away.

People in academia have historically been at the forefront of many progressive socio-cultural movements, however, unfortunately, they have not done enough to clean their own homes and make the academic institutions a safe-space from harassment. Many faculty members routinely exploit their position of authority, power and hierarchy vis-à-vis that of their students, to harass the latter in many ways.

Means such as nepotism and favouritism, unfair & punitive grading and taking adverse coercive action that damage future career prospects of their student are commonplace misdeeds in academia. Sexual harassment is an extreme manifestation of such exploitation that is targeted, mostly, at the female students. However, rather than attempting to look at sexual harassment through a lens that isolates it from the other forms of harassments in the classroom, we should look at bullying and harassment by faculty members more holistically to tackle this social evil.

Sexual harassment by faculty members has little to do with primordial desires, but more to do with the fact that a faculty member demands and expects submission from his students, and is an expression of a power play. If there is an appropriate use of the Savarna-Dalit allegory, the faculty-student relationship would be it. Students learn to withstand and tolerate such harassment as there are few efficient institutional and legal mechanisms to challenge it.

While it is heartening that some progressive institutions in India are putting in place procedures that discourage & prevent sexual harassment, one can only hope that others will soon follow suit. Further college and universities should look at the issue of harassment more holistically, while not losing focus on the sexual abuse aspect.

How do we distinguish between folks who have made undue advances & sexual assaults from those who may have just made some casual unwelcome sexist remarks?

Raya’s list is not a novel idea. Recently, a few women in New York City, who work in Media & Communications, had curated such a list for sexual harassment in the world of media, but they had to take it down. That list and Raya's share similar methodological deficiencies. Raya's list has four major flaws. First, it doesn’t bucket the names of offending faculty members in two categories – one against whom formal complaints have already been lodged and the second for whom there is none.

This is an important distinction to make, and contrary to popular belief, it doesn't weaken the seriousness of the list, rather strengthens it as more authentic and believable. Second, Raya has also made a serious mistake of attempting to become the sole curator or gatekeeper for such a list; one has to completely rely on her judgement that she got it right.

A collective earns more public trust than an individual in such sensitive matters, she should have enlisted a wider group of folks to curate and maintain that list. Third, the nature of the offence of the accused is not mentioned. While the victim’s identity should be private, the incident needn’t be. How do we distinguish between folks who have made undue advances & sexual assaults from those who may have just made some casual unwelcome sexist remarks?

In the realms of theory, both amount to harassment, but from a matter of practicality, the two are not the same. Unless we can completely rid ourselves of patriarchy, there will always be some bias against women, but one cannot adopt a “boil the ocean” approach to treating all forms of offensive behaviour as equal. Some of these offences deserve jail time; others may just deserve a rebuke.

The course of common law, which Raya is surely very familiar with, makes a solid distinction between felony offences, misdemeanours, and infractions. Unfortunately, her list does not make any distinctions. Some of Raya’s supporters have claimed that the accountability lies with the named offenders, they need to own up and should come clean.

An argument such as the above, cannot be more juvenile, as no one can come clean without knowing the charges or accusations against him! Fourth, as a student of law, Raya could have made her list more effective as evidence material towards prosecuting the offenders in future. Unfortunately, the way it has been architected, the list cannot stand scrutiny in any court of law.

However, while Raya's list can be criticised for its shortcomings, her attempt should not be discouraged and dismissed like the Kafila feminists have done. Unlike what they have, somewhat unfairly, claimed Raya’s attempt doesn’t delegitimise or undermine any of their sustained efforts to reform institutions and put in more formal grievance redressal mechanisms in academic institutions. As a parallel, the very popular RatemyProfessors.com, a web portal that allows students to rate their professors online anonymously, doesn’t undermine the formal course evaluation mechanisms put in place by the universities in the US.

Through whisper campaigns & slander, female students, in India's universities have warned other students & parents about possible sexual predators, and such awareness mechanisms have been a very effective form of defense.

The cleavage amongst the two camps in the realm of feminism reminds me of the seemingly eternal debates within the radical and progressive political actors - the leftists that are inspired by Marx & Lenin versus the libertarian socialists (anarchists) inspired by Kropotkin, Proudhon and Bakunin.

Central to the debate is the role of vanguards in movements and the question of hegemony. The Marxist Leninist leftists always feel the need of a vanguard force that would need to spark and shape political activity.

On the other hand, the libertarian socialists prefer spontaneous & sporadic insurrections and aim to destroy these institutional mechanisms quickly and forever, to lay the groundwork for a new world order. The anarchists dislike the vanguardism and deterministic politics of the left and their inability to identify hegemony outside of class relationships. The leftists tend to ignore the hegemony that also exists, for example, within the communist party itself.

The above hegemony is somewhat evident in the manner the Kafila feminists have been dismissive of Raya Sarkar’s attempt. In the subsequent posts by Nivedita Menon in Kafila, Kavita Krishnan in The Wire, these prominent individuals have outlined the deterministic pathways of combating patriarchy, as they have practised in the past. By doing that, they have followed the same vanguardism that makes leftists unpopular amongst likeminded non-left progressives, who would otherwise broadly agree on issues.

Resistance need not be a revolution or a rebellion. In fact, such decisive events are very infrequent. However, the human spirit doesn’t ever cease to resist. People show their contempt and resistance against the existing hegemonic power structures through everyday forms of resistance, as James Scott has shown in his path-breaking work, “Weapons of the Weak”.

But, since such resistance mechanisms do not appear in any movement entrepreneur’s playbook, the Kafila feminists dislike it.

Scott has studied the less visible, everyday forms of resistance, such as foot-dragging, evasion, false compliance, pilfering, feigned ignorance, slander and sabotage and many more techniques employed by peasants against landlords and governments.

The Kafila feminists feel that women students haven’t been resisting sexual harassments in academia enough. In fact, they haven’t been looking. Through whisper campaigns & slander, female students, in India's universities have warned other students & parents about possible sexual predators, and such awareness mechanisms have been a very effective form of defense.

An informal survey of students in any academic campus will tell you, that they know the questionable characters, they have been “handed down” this knowledge through seniors, batch mates and the student community in general. Raya’s list should be seen as an extension of that collective effort. She has collated such whispers and slanders and put it up in the public domain for everybody to see. But, since such resistance mechanisms do not appear in any movement entrepreneur’s playbook, the Kafila feminists dislike it. They needn't.

This great divide amongst activists did not start recently, nor is it going to end anytime soon. One just hopes well-meaning people like Raya and her supporters and the prominent personalities in Kafila can disagree without being disagreeable.

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