A Midsummer Feminists Party

The Saturday before last some artsy friends of mine held a Midsummer Feminists Gig at Balham Bowling Green. There was food, drink, poetry, music, dance and even a fire place. So all in all a good night. The night was hosted by Catherine Brogan who had the audience giggling the night away talking about everything from how the toilets work to how a poem she wrote for my sisters night, Dyssing Monadys is now being used in schools to teach teachers about dyslexia (how amazing is that?)! 

The night was a fundraiser for the London Feminist Conference.

As it turned out, there was no Northern line and I started my journey in Swindon... so me and K had to mission it with a bunch of change overs and overground trains to get there (late - though it wasn't on a real time schedule anyway) and meant we had to leave early, to get back to my house at the opposite end of London.

We spotted the big gates walking down the street and I remembered doing this journey once before, last year some time, when Cat held another poetry event there. I've been to a few arts events at squats around London, but I think this was K's first. As we passed through the gates we were greeted by a couple of feminists sat at a table looking for donations. Further down the path we found a sign and the entrance on to the green; a large space with a bonfire hole out in the middle and a table tennis table set up in front of the building. Of course, we were soon to have a game... How could we resist?

Because of the time constraints facing me, I could only see a few of the acts. This is definitely a sad time, as I missed lots of gold, but here are some highlights:

The Kitchen Quartet were definitely at the top of the list for me. As you can (just about) see from the picture, the quartet was a person down for the evening, but don't worry the three of them still kicked arse. Their quirky style of new arrangements made from old songs were fantastic.

Sabrina Mahfouz was absolutely amazing as usual, performing a bunch of new material she tested out on us as well as the Red Riding Hood poem that won her the Lyrical Challenge the month I took part. 

Camila Fiori was another highlight, performing a poem in maybe five different languages. I'm pretty sure I spotted French, Italian, Spanish and English as well as maybe something else... unfortunately my language skills aren't nearly as amazing but I feel a little inspired to try to write my own bilingual poem. I may as well make use of being able to speak Greek! 

I've been a very busy bee this week but I'm going to make a point of blogging regularly. I have to do an Interview for the journalism course I'm applying to, so will be talking to The Dead Lay Waiting this week thanks to the lovely wife. She's a music promotor and is using her magic powers for good i.e. to help me out.

Movie Review: First Wives Club

Ok, I know is really old and probably not actually worth reviewing, but I love Bette Midler and thought I'd take the opportunity to look at her by watching the movie again. Whilst obviously taking the opportunity to talk about my love for her by reviewing the movie. Maybe I'll do a 'Bette Midler Season' and watch Hocus Pocus tomorrow! Both have Sarah Jessica Parker in too (which I totally only just noticed! How ridiculous is that?).

So let's start by filling you all in on those standard details in case you don't already know.

First Wives Club, 1996
Director: Hugh Wilson
Writers: Olivia Goldsmith (novel) Robert Harling (screenplay)
Staring: Bette Midler, Goldie Hawn, Diane Keaton

Now, you know when you see the names of amazing actors on a film, you're always that little bit more tempted to go see it? Well, it's with good reason. Good actors promise at the very least good acting. And this is something that should never be over looked, I mean come on, you didn't watch 'Jenifer's Body' because Megan Fox can act now did you?

So after the suicide of high school friend, Cynthia Swann Griffin, who is abandoned by her husband, 3 recently divorced old friends come together to teach their exes a lesson and get some revenge. This is a witty comedy about women getting even. It might sound a little anti-men, but it's not, just anti-cheating-user-men.

They formed the First Wives Club and vow to get back at them.

Elise is an actress with a drinking problem and a fear of growing old - enough so to lead to the love of the knife. Brenda is a single mother, raising a jewish son who's father gets engaged to a ditzy young woman (Parker). Annie is afraid of confrontation, whilst raising a lesbian daughter and putting up with her mother.

Elise (Hawn) starts taking back all the possessions she ever gave to her husband who is expecting alimony, including his Lamborghini which they then trick Brenda's (Midler) ex husbands new bit into buying in auction.

They sneak into Brenda's exes new place to look for his books after finding out his business is dodgy. The bit in the window cleaning lift thing was hilarious. They're all trying to be discrete and quiet but they're screaming and freaking out and then they're falling down the side of a building and they're screaming some more. They even pause to look in on a couple in bed!

Song of the movie is You Don't Own Me which the girls sing on a couple of occasions - and I LOVE. It is actually also one of the reasons I watched the movie today! I heard the song (being sung by someone else) in a youtube video and got really excited!

So there are the ups and the downs and the girls get into a fight and smash up Elise's place a bit. Annie (Keaton), the quiet one, screams at the other two before being slapped by Brenda.

I'm not going to carry on, because if you are one of the few people who haven't seen this film in the 14 years it's been around then I don't want to ruin the story for you. There's lots of meddling and plotting and it's high quality comedy; real quality, not the usual comedic crap that floats about the place. I admit I am not usually a big comedy fan, but maybe I need to restate that: I'm not a fan of teen comedies. I'm not a fan of slapstick or cheap shots. But I damn well love this film.

The ‘feminist’ shadow

For some reason the word ‘feminist’ comes with an array of negative connotations, it leaves a bitter taste in the mouth and has women running from being given the title. “I’m not a feminist!” becomes the theme tune for women too afraid to stand up for themselves, for fear of being seen as some unladylike creature. Feminism is un-feminine. All sorts of ideas about feminists haunt the air; they are all man-hating lesbians who don’t shave their armpits and bench press their anger in the gym whilst starting fires and breaking laws.

Fear of change has given birth to all the above stereotypes (along with however many others) to stunt the movement’s potential. The actual definition of a feminism (so says dictionary.com) is ‘the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men’. All feminism is, is the belief that people should be equal – yet somehow it’s become a dirty word.

 "Feminism is the radical notion that women are human beings."

--Cheris Kramerae, author of A Feminist Dictionary, 1996

If it wasn’t for the feminist’s of our past, we wouldn’t have a vote; we wouldn’t have a voice. We wouldn’t have jobs or trousers or chances, yet these women in history don’t have our respect. They are hero’s, but are portrayed as nothing more than crazy, angry nightmares. The male-dominated power structure sees the threat and wants it destroyed, and what better way to destroy the opposition than to pump it’s being with negative labels to scare away new members of joining it. How dare those pesky women demand equal pay for equal work! How dare they try to make their own decisions about their bodies! What disgusting behaviour…

In people’s notion of feminism, they assume it is about women becoming the new power. About turning our society into a matriarchy, where women hold all the cards – but they’re wrong. It isn’t about power, it’s about equality. I personally think it is ignorant of human beings to assume anyone is better than anyone else, we all came from the same place and we are all going to the same place. What is so wrong in believing we should all be treated the same? Why is equality some evil that must be squashed?

People look at the state of men and women in our current climate and seem to think we have nowhere left to go; that this is equality. This is just another way of stopping us ever reaching an equal footing. Of course we’re not yet equal, and unless we see that we will never move forward. We cannot overcome what we cannot see.

Men are still paid more for the same work. Men still get more jobs over women applicants. Men are embarrassed if they’re ever over powered by a woman. The list goes on. On top of this, there are the women who think using their femininity to become successful is wrong and they must behave ‘like men’ if they want to succeed, but I think this is the wrong approach. Much of the system is based on male advantages and can be climbed with use of male characteristics, but there is nothing wrong with using female characteristics to get ahead and to build new ladders.

Somehow society has women fighting with one another, so they are too distracted to fight the state. Women see each other as a threat, as if only one woman can ever be successful or beautiful or happy so the rest are competitors. How can we ever be taken seriously in a plea for equality when we can’t accept such a concept within our own community.

I wrote this to submit to the feminist carnival with gender across boarders, check out more on The Feminist Carnival Here

And If you fancy submitting something too, click Here

Behold, The Album!

Hello Internet.

I have created an album consisting of a collection of my poetry, including a bonus track which cannot be found online as well as a few other never before heard tracks.

Artwork by Gregory Gaige

It only costs £4 plus P&P and any money I make is going towards the budget of my first short film. I need to get prosthetics and make up and stuff -

You can check out my poetry at my Myspace or on YouTube to get an idea of whether it's something you are going to like or not. It's Christmas time, so what a wonderful present it could make for someone =p

^^

Buy my CD!

SuperPennie - From The Outside In
£4.50 + p&p
Be sure to click either the UK or Worldwide option to ensure the postage is right =]

SuperPennie - From The Outside In

From The Outside In (UK) £6.00 From The Outside In (Worldwide) £7.50