March is Women’s History Month. The Women’s Studies Program sponsored events including the following: Nappy:
Black Women and Film and discussion with filmmaker, Lydia Ann Douglas. ‘Nappy’ deals with the relationship between black women and western ideals of beauty. It focuses on women who choose to wear their hair "natural." American ideals of female beauty can determine how far a woman can advance in her career, education, and life pursuits. When we think about the standard of beauty for women in the United States, we picture a tall, slender, busty woman with long, blond, cascading hair. How does this ideal affect African American women? Lydia Douglas’ film "Nappy" illustrates that in response to these standards, Black women continue to chemically straighten their hair. To be successful and accepted in our society, Black women must often conform to white America’s rules of beauty, which means altering a natural feature of their bodies through chemical treatment. Not only does Douglas maintain that our culture demands that African Americans adhere to white standards of beauty in order to succeed, she also says that Black women relax their hair as an internalization of white racism. White America fears "distinctly African" features like the tightly coiled, kinky hair of African Americans. Black women are therefore expected to look as much like white women as they can, even if this means they much change their natural qualities of their hair. If Black women reject these racist beauty standards, they may choose not to straighten their hair, and instead wear it in braids, corn rows, twists, locks, or other styles that are not accepted by mainstream white culture. This is a form of rejection of white American standards of beauty and racism. However, when Black women choose to wear their hair naturally, they are often discriminated against when competing for jobs, education, and other opportunities. In "Nappy," Douglas shows that hair is as much a part of our cultural identity and self-image as our personalities and our backgrounds. By imposing white standards on African-Americans and other people of color, our society creates an unattainable and unjust goal. by Sally Tamarkin
Cradle-Grave: Unwanted Females and Activist Theatre in India. Film and lecture with activist, Dr. Padma Venkataraman, about unwanted girl children in India and a street theatre project that seeks to raise public awareness of sex-selective abortion and female discrimination. In India, Dr. Venkataraman and a group of activists travel to small villages where they sing and make a scene in the public square in order to gather a crowd. They then perform a series of skits on the topics of sex-selective abortion, female infanticide, and the negative effects of the high cost of dowries on families. The skits do not have a written ending, but instead rely on audience participation to finish the story. The skits eventually dissolve into discussions between the actors and the villagers. In this way, the actors hope to engage the local inhabitants in a dialogue in an attempt to raise awareness of the maltreatment of female children and in order to challenge the continued use of these practices. Dr. Venkataraman’s group is making a great start in raising awareness about the issue of unwanted females. However, as long as girls are not valued and are viewed as burdens to their parents, sex-selective abortion, female neglect, and female infanticide will continue. Perhaps if more women and men were more educated about birth control and if birth control was more accessible, the number of sex-selective abortions would decrease. In the same way, if the government and people of India made a conscious effort to remove the need for, and significance of, dowry, the number of sex-selective abortions would decrease as well. Sex-selective abortion, as perceived by the West, is abhorrent, because sex discrimination against girls in the West is perhaps more subtle. Additionally, sex-selective abortion is an offensive idea to us because it removes the essential significance of legal abortions. With legal abortions, women have the power to take control of their own bodies and decide whether or not they wish to bear a child. Through sex-selective abortion, abortion becomes synonymous with an anti-woman sentiment when abortion itself is and has always been fundamentally pro-woman. by Elizabeth Lorenz |
Silences of the Palace Internationally acclaimed film that depicts the life of women in a harem in Tunisia during themid-1900-s. Silences of the Palace is set in a palace of the beys in Tunisia on the brink of its war of independence from France. The story is about the life of a young woman named Alia, who was the illegitimate daughter of the elder prince, Sid’Ali, and a palace maid, Khedija. In the beginning of the film, we see Alia leaving a nightclub where she is a self-described "failed singer." She is pregnant by a man to whom she is not married. He wants her to abort the fetus, but she moans, "every eye accuses me," meaning she feels that the abortion would be against God and society. Her lover informs her that Sid’Ali has died. So Alia returns to the palace for the first time in ten years, at which point a series of flashbacks to her adolescence begins. Alia had a difficult time in the palace as a child. She was born on the same day as Sid’Ali’s legitimate daughter, Sarra. Although her father is kind to her, Alia suffers from her second-class status in the palace. As the story develops, we follow Alia’s "coming of age" and her increasing understanding of men’s behavior and palace rules and politics. The palace is a kind of prison for the women who live there. Palace women, both servants and wives, must serve the men at all times and be sexually available to the princes on demand. Servant women are not allowed to leave the palace unescorted and are denied the privilege of seeing their own family members who come to visit. Sometimes they are raped. Yet they are so dependent on the palace that they are too afraid to leave it for the unknown in the outside world. Even the legitimate wives must obey the princes in every aspect of their lives. They cannot protest when their husbands take mistresses and publicly humiliate them. The film shows very powerfully the inequality of men and women in the palace. Men are shown talking politics and world affairs while women spend time looking in mirrors and gossiping. Mothers teach their daughters how to please and get a man. Girls cannot choose their marriage partners; it is decided by their fathers. Alia manages to escape the palace, fleeing with a man after singing at her sister Sarra’s wedding, but she is unable to escape the emotional damage of her upbringing. Alia’s musical talent wins her praise and material goods, but it cannot win her freedom. She is still trapped in a world of inequality and hardship for women. by Müge Pars
Intimate Enemies: The Two Worlds of the Baroness de Pontalba Book reading and signing by the author, Dr. Christine Vella, Tulane University. Her book is a biography of a woman who lived between the two worlds of New Orleans and Paris in the late 18th and early 19th centuries. Dr. Christine Vella delivered an incredible oration that captured the invincible life of the Baroness de Pontalba. Stuck in a failing marriage under the oppressive laws in France, the Baroness de Pontalba endured hardships and life threatening circumstances. With courage and a strong will to survive, she was able to endure the persecution of her husband, the murderous assault of her father-in-law, and finally lead the life of a free woman in control of her future. The Baroness, originally born Micaela Alomonester in New Orleans in 1795, was married off to Celestin de Pontalba in Paris at the age of fifteen. Her parents were wealthy landowners with property in New Orleans and Paris, and she became the sole heir to the fortune upon her parents’ death some years later. Her dreams for a life of love and happiness were never met due to the overbearing nature of Celestin’s father. He manipulated Celestin to the point that he became a monster who held Micaela prisoner in his family’s home. The Baroness was a remarkable individual with a vision of developing her family’s property in New Orleans into a beautiful architectural treasure. Throughout her marriage, however, her father-in-law’s greed for this property turned her life into a living hell. He despised her and barred everyone from speaking to her. His eventual hatred of her led to his own demise. This biography of the Baroness de Pontalba illustrates her extreme passion for life, which shows a continual struggle between love and hate. I was very impressed with Dr. Vella. She captivated and astounded her audience with her narrative presentation. It sparks a deeper meaning and understanding for the book when the author explains it in her own words. by Sara Bakker |
