photos: Julieta Segura.
No matter how happy or miserable, wealthy or poor, we all came from the same place – the vulva. Performer Dani Brown states in her newest Performance “The Pressing” at Radialsystem this weekend the question how our world would be if the female sexual and reproductive organ would be on center stage.
As the gift-giving season approaches, we’re all on the lookout for fun and sustainably produced presents for friends and family. Wonderpieces, the new collection of feminist and socially conscious puzzles by the publishing house Familiar Faces might be exactly what you’re looking for!
The idea for this innovative puzzle collection came from Marie and Yvonn, the founders of Familiar Faces. These two Berlin moms have been known for creating products that bring the whole family together, starting with customizable childrens’ books. Now, Familiar Faces are addressing a wider audience with puzzle designs that celebrate feminism and inclusivity.
We’ve just celebrated International Women’s Day when it is customary for our social media feeds to start filling with messages of female empowerment. But obviously, celebrating being a woman should not happen merely on an annual basis. And what is more, the joy over how far we’ve come should not eclipse the work that still has to be done. We need more awareness about issues of intersectional feminism in our day-to-day lives. One such issue is the fact that womxn still cannot always feel safe in the streets of Berlin. “I’M BORED”, a short film by Chelsea Herbert and Alex Newton, is an honest and ultimately hopeful reflection on street harassment by a girl who’s grown tired of it.
photo: Lindsey LaMont.
Growing up, the meaning of March 8th has changed a lot for me over the years. When I was younger, Women’s Day was simply when my father would bring home flowers for my mother, myself and my sister, a Soviet tradition my parents had brought with them from Kazakhstan.
Later as a teen, it was to feel a sense of sisterhood as I texted my best girlfriends “Happy Women’s Day!” and exchanged with them words of encouragement after yet another day of navigating high school sexism from boys in our class.
Now today as an adult, March 8th reminds me to take a moment to reflect on women’s issues I care about, whether personal or systemic, while also celebrating myself and the women around me.
Last year, Berlin became the first German state to make Women’s Day a public holiday. Having been originally proposed by German women’s rights activist and Marxist theorist Clara Zetkin at the 1910 International Socialist Women’s Conference in Copenhagen, women have celebrated the holiday in March for over a century. In 2019, the Berlin Senate voted 87 to 60 in favor of the bill to make Women’s Day a city-wide holiday. Instead of simply enjoying the day off this year, check out some of these projects and events celebrating womxnhood and the feminine experience in Berlin.
photos: Hanko Ye.
Contesting outdated social norms is in itself a favorite pastime of many Berliners, but it gets even better when the critique is accompanied by elements of the new counterculture. That’s what the Riot Pant Project is all about – read on to find out more about the subversive trend that reclaims public space from the grip of social masculinity.
photos: Vismante Ruzgaite.
The three of us used to be inseparable. I would always include them in my plans, practically wouldn’t leave the house without them. Up until very recently, I just felt like I’m not quite complete without my makeup and bra on. We’re still seeing each other now, but sometimes I just choose to go solo.
Since my usual look used to be some kind of a 60s groupie wannabe, I was quite surprised by this development in my personal style. Did I get tired with the time-consuming rituals? Have I inadvertently caught up with a trend? Why do I feel like I have to analyze this in terms of the mainstream beauty standards anyway?
The Berlin Senate has declared ‘Women’s Day’ at the 8th of March a public holiday. This is groundbreaking and about time!
“Today is a very big sign that we are making progress on the road to equality between men and women,” said Derya Caglar, spokeswoman on equality policy for the SPD, in a press statement. Once a year, on March 8th, all people will be reminded that women are still not equal in our society. Read on…
Laurence Philomene
Curated By Girls is a visual artist platform, run by Berlin-based French girl Laetitia Duveau. It focuses on diversity and equality. The website is all-inclusive – anyone and everyone can submit: all genders, all ethnicities, all body types, all generations… Taking a look at the artists featured on the platform, you will see a diverse patchwork representing an optimistic vision of humanity. The goal is to make everybody’s voice heard and respected.
Freer in Berlin is the new exhibition of Curated by Girls, on view on October 8 and 9 at Blender & Co in Neukölln. We sat down and chatted with Laetitia about her project, her curating vision, femininity, identity and the hipster aesthetic.
While reading fairy tales as a child I never understood why the girl protagonist was so weak and defenseless and had to wait for a prince to come save her to achieve happiness. At that time I did not understand that society wants girls to be helpless and dependent on men. Even if sexism and inequality between men and women exists in all societies, there are different realities in several countries. But what strikes me the most is the inequality that can exist inside one country, for instance between the countryside and the cities. Take Turkey for instance, where Istanbul is a free and modern city and the countryside still has the mentality of medieval times.
A wonderful but sad description of this circumstance of Turkish society is shown in the movie Mustang by female director Deniz Gamze. The movie was nominated for many awards this past season: the Oscars, the Golden Globes and in Cannes, where it premiered and even won. Nonetheless it was rather a coincidence that I went to a small independent cinema in Friedrichshain called Ladenkino to see this movie. My impressions of this film, after the jump.