Friday, February 2, 2018

EXPRESSIONS OF FEMINISM / AUSTRALIAN ART / THE YORKSHIRE RIPPER LINK WITH CURRENT BURNING ISSUE


It is no wonder  that  this  blogger's  blood pressure fluctuates -196 recently- and   he feels  lightheaded from time to time, eyes also causing trouble,  because of  all the exciting   things  and stories  that  come his way . One  great researcher, with whom frequent  sessions are held  over  coffee  (mine latte ) ,  produces a never ending stream  of  fascinating  items - books , postcards  , ephemera ,  superb  information   from  near  and  far  on  many  subjects .

A few days ago, when I called on him  at his home ,  he  was  sorting  out  for cataloguing   a  tantalising   pile  of   feminist  material   covering  art, a run of Lip   journals ,  the Women's  Electoral Lobby .  Out from the pile emerged   a   folded   board  game   for  women ,  called  The Monthly , seeming  a  play on  Monopoly, but certainly  not  dealing with expensive British   real estate-secret women's business ?

There was a book on Queensland  women  artists past and present , another on  women and artists  of the Heidelberg era  in Victoria , a publication dealing with an exhibition  of  feminist  cartoonists . Wow. On and on  it went ,various items extracted  at  random   to  be  hastily  photographed  for  Little Darwin .

AGOG -Australian Girls  Own Gallery , Canberra. 
This blogger's recent  acquisition  of  a mere  two feminist publications paled  into insignificance  by   comparison  with  this  trove .   One,  produced by James Cook University , covered  Queensland  female literature , which has provided a lead for a major  forthcoming  feature in  this  blog .


 The other was  the British  Feminist Review #9  of  1981 , with  a  powerful  editorial  which  opened :

1981 in Britain will be remembered as the year when there were three million unemployed, when Irish prisoners  died on hunger strike, when there were riots in almost  all major city centres -and when the British public was entertained  by two full scale spectacles : the trial  of Peter Sutcliffe , the 'Yorkshire Ripper ' and the  Royal Wedding of Prince  Charles and  Lady Dianna  Spencer . In both cases  a legal procedure, a trial and a marriage , have provided  a form in which sexual order  and dynastic and  political continuity may be ensured.

It went on to say this issue of the Feminist Review contained an analysis of the Sutcliffe trial in which the author , Wendy Hollway, criticised  the  way  the   event was   constructed by  the media  and  the  way  it was  presented   jurisdically.

Despite the thousands of words that had been written about the trial, there is still no account outside the "left" or alternative press that seeks to  expose  the  presumptions about the nature of male and female  sexuality which were assumed in the trial and in the commentaries  upon it.

Ironically, the media did give some space to feminists who were mobilizing around the issues of  male  violence  and the 'Ripper' case before Peter Sutcliffe was actually arrested ,  but women's anger was incorporated into conventional 'law and order' positions which  interpreted  the 'Ripper's' behaviour  as both 'sick' and 'evil'-as deserving  the heaviest punishment- while glossing over its continuity  with   ' normal ' male behaviour  towards women in our society . The implications of these events as well deserve  further  analysis  of sexual violence are, we feel, important issues  for socialist  feminists and we  would welcome further contributions on  this subject ...

A quick glance  through the publication  revealed  penned in criticism of  an article , Representation of  Patriarchy: Sexuality  and Epistemology  in Freud's Dora , and  a book review   dealing   with   art , one  statement  termed " rot.".