Sunday 8 December 2013

Meeting in January

Hi All to follow up from Diane's blog post here are the details of the next meeting in January. See you at the next meeting.

Here's a link to the reading http://tinyurl.com/despentes-kingkongtheory




Monday 25 November 2013

Text for January session

From Diane Ofili, the newest member  [ and by the looks of it the biggest gobshite]

Hello, this is the link to the next reading session in January 2014 : bit.ly/1c5pbro .It should lead an excerpt of  'The King Kong Theory' by Virginie DesPentes. The phrase that hits home  is 'I am more King Kong than Kate Moss'. It resonates with me as I have always taken pride in certain traits , like my directness and tallness, that are not necessarily 'feminine'. It in no way makes me value my womanhood any less , in spite of the bullshit  others have tried to brainwash me with.Can masculine and feminine identities happily co-exist within the same person ? Does accepting our manly sides [should we have any ] mean relinquishing our more girly ones or do they in fact compliment each other ?

Just out of interest have any of you heard of a book called 'Is there anything good about men ?' by Roy Baumeister . It would be interesting to see how male-centric texts or points of view intersect with the discussions of the group. Anyway I hope you enjoy the excerpt., I look forward to seeing you gals early next year !


All the best
Diane

Tuesday 22 October 2013

CINZIA ARRUZZA - In Manchester

DANGEROUS LIAISONS!

THE MARRIAGES AND DIVORCES OF MARXISM AND FEMINISM

Wednesday 29 January 2014, 6pm

Friends Meeting House,
6 Mount St, Manchester M2 5NS

CINZIA ARRUZZA

Cinzia Arruzza, Italian revolutionary socialist feminist, activist and academic, member of the Fourth International, currently at the New School for Social Research in New York, is author of the 2013 book Dangerous Liaisons: The Marriages and Divorces of Marxism and Feminism. The book runs through debates over links between Marxism and feminism ranging from the Russian and Chinese revolutions and the rise of Stalinism to the second wave feminist conceptualisation of gender as class relation and then to recognition-based politics and queer theory.

This meeting is co-sponsored by organisations working together in Manchester: Socialist Resistance, AntiCapitalist Initiative, and International Socialist Network. It continues an urgent debate within the revolutionary left at the Beyond the Fragments event in Manchester about the role of feminism in our politics.

There will be a reading group focussing on the four chapters of the book in the lead up to Cinzia’s visit. To be involved in that reading group, and to get the book for £7.00, contact Ian at discourseunit@gmail.com


19th November Meeting - Sara Ahmed


Friday 27 September 2013

Manchester TransForum


Meeting details - 

Date- 28th September 
Time- 3.30 to 6.30 pm 
Venue- LGF, 2nd Floor, No.5 Richmond Street, MANCHESTER, M1 3HF LGF, 2nd Floor, No.5 Richmond Street, MANCHESTER, M1 3HF 

All TransForum Manchester meetings are held  at The LGF, 2nd Floor, No.5 Richmond Street, MANCHESTER, M1 3HF and is in the heart of Manchester's Gay Village behind Canal St and approx 5-10 minutes’ walk from either Piccadilly or Oxford Road Main Line Railway Stations.
The building It is accessible by lift or by the Stairs. The Entry intercom is to the right of the door. Press the intercom button for the LGF to gain access by speaking to Reception.



Here's a link to their website where you can find a copy of the north west trans listings which has useful  information and phone numbers http://www.transforum.org.uk/

Thursday 19 September 2013

FIRST MEETING OF ACADEMIC YEAR 2013 – 2014


FEMINIST RESEARCH READING GROUP
FIRST MEETING OF ACADEMIC YEAR 2013 – 2014
Date: Tuesday 15 October
Time: 3.30 – 5pm
Venue: Didsbury Campus, Behrens 0.2

Reading: Chapter 1 – Social Abjection, taken from Tyler, I. (2013) Revolting Subjects: Social Abjection and Resistance in Neo-Liberal Britain
For a copy of the reading,
please contact us through the blog

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Twitter: #FRRG
Related Events
11 November – Sand Bar – Screening of 15 Park Avenue
A film about a woman’s struggle through mental illness in India. Followed by discussion. The film is being screened as part of the Trauma film club’s mental health season. This is also an Asylum magazine event. http://www.hssr.mmu.ac.uk/trauma/november-2013-ruminations-on-madness/



Wednesday 14 August 2013

About the FRRG

We have been based in MMU for nearly 30 years now. This is a student led group.  We are open to all genders and accommodate children feel free to bring friends. We are open to using technology to make this group accessible.

The group meets every fortnight to discuss academic papers/ book chapters or even films. We are open to suggestion and would like ideas from you.

We have an email list if you want to be a part of that contact us.

We accept articles for the blog and will be happy to hear from you. 

Tuesday 23 July 2013

Newbie blogger here....

Evening all - Just a short hello and thanks for adding myself to your group. I am a police officer from Manchester. I am also an "out" Transvestite who is happy to discuss all things diversity, Trans or even legal matters with anyone who whould choose to take an interest. I have a policy of "no such thing as a stupid question". Feel free to contact me anytime.

I am gutted to see further down in the Blog that I missed the discussion around The girl with the dragon tattoo. My favorite set of books and also my favourite screen/novel lead character.

Monday 20 May 2013

Racialising emotional labour and emotionalising racialised labour: Anger, fear and shame in social welfare by Yasmin Gunaratnam & Gail Lewis


It has been a while since we met up. How about we meet up next on 5th June from  4 pm – 6pm 

Room number -  Birley 0.2  Didsbury Campus

We are now based in Disbury Campus http://www2.mmu.ac.uk/travel/didsbury/

The paper  for this session is - Racialising emotional labour and emotionalising racialised labour: Anger, fear and shame in social welfare by Yasmin Gunaratnam & Gail Lewis. 

If you need a copy of the paper send me an email. 



If you have any papers/book chapters you would like to discuss do send them to us. 

Wednesday 17 April 2013

St Dymphna Seminars


The St Dymphna Seminars was created in 2012 to provide a safe and open environment for those with an interest in mental health to  discuss issues relating to practice and experience. Inspired by the models of community care in traditions established at Gheel, the seminars aim to educate and reveal aspects of living with mental illness and perspectives on predominant models and treatments that are rarely shared. It is hoped that these seminars will also provide an arena for conflicting stances to witness the reality behind the ideology.

Here is t link to the website. 

http://theswordandfettereddevil.wordpress.com/about/

Tuesday 12 March 2013

The Discrimination and Abuse of Trans* Women



"In spite of a more understanding & diverse world, often supported by robust equality legislation, Trans Women are still too often marginalised, discriminated against, excluded from services and from female spaces, at a much greater incidence than the general female population. They are too often denied services, excluded, abused, violently attacked and even murdered. ( At least one a day around the world) Our discussion today will introduce the basics of Trans Awareness, the incidents and causes of discrimination, the abuse & violence this community regularly suffers and the consequent devastating effect on individuals.We will also discuss how this unacceptable behaviour can be changed and suggest some actions for improving the acceptance and respect for all Trans* women. Although we are focusing on Women today, Trans Men, particularly at the start of their transition suffer equally from abuse, attack and murder."


Interesting discussion tonight. Here is a link to the recording of the event click here.  Some of the issues that came up were of sexuality, of how trans* women and men are thought of as asexual or their sexuality is not adequately understood, which problematises  the definition of homosexuality. 

The link between gender and sexuality was also explored and also how one's awareness of gender is formed earlier than one's idea of sexual orientation.  What are your thoughts? would love to hear from you. 


Wednesday 6 March 2013

Rachel Mann- Dazzling Darkness


To follow up from the previous post on the Dazzling Darkness event. Interesting discussion about finding meaning and G-d in darkness and a journey through self exploration and choosing between two rights and sometimes two wrongs. Rachel talks about her options and her all too human struggles which make her work universal.


Here is an audio recording of the event today. Rachel read out excepts from her book and a few of her poems.


A big thank you to Reverend Rachel Mann for sharing her work with us and to all those who attended the event and participated.


Rachel Mann is a Church of England priest and is Resident Poet at Manchester Cathedral. Her work – on rock music, poetry and theology – has been widely published in magazines, anthologies and newsprint. 

Here is a link to her  website




Monday 18 February 2013

Troubling Gender: The Question of Multiple Identities

Reminder - The deadline for abstracts for Troubling Gender: The Question of Multiple Identities, a one-day interactive conference at the on the topic of intersectional feminism, is 24th February 2013.

We are also very excited to announce the keynote speakers for the conference:

Dr. Bridget Byrne (University of Manchester), who is known for her work on the politics and culture of social class, ‘racial’ and gendered identities. In 2006, Byrne authored ‘White lives: the interplay of ‘race’, class and gender in everyday life’ which was based on her earlier research into the construction of white identity in Britain.

Professor Avtar Brah (Birkbeck, University of London), the author of the influential ‘Cartographies of Diaspora: Contesting Identities’ which offered a new approach to the study of ‘difference’ and ‘commonality’ within the context of feminism and anti-racism. More recently, Brah co-wrote the article, ‘Ain’t I A Woman? Revisiting Intersectionality’ with Professor Ann Phoenix, which explored the intersections of gender, ‘race’ and sexuality with social class and argued that studying these intersections allows a more complex and dynamic understanding than a focus on social class alone.

In addition to the paper sessions, we will also be running workshops addressing issues of gender and age, neo-colonialisms and transnationalism, and the identity politics of research, as well as a roundtable discussion. Registration for the conference will open at the beginning of March. The cost will be £5 - £8 on a sliding scale. This includes lunch and a post-conference drinks reception.

The Conference is on Friday 24th May at the University of Sheffield. For more information, visit: http://troublinggender.wordpress.com/

Sunday 17 February 2013

Rachel Mann- Dazzling Darkness



Dazzling Darkness  is a true story about searching for one's authentic self in the company of the Living God. Rachel Mann has died many 'deaths' in the process, not the least of which was a change of sex, as well as coming to terms with chronic illness and disability.
Through these experiences she has discovered that darkness is as much a positive place as a negative one, inhabited by the Living God – the Dark God, the Hidden God. This is the God many of us, because we try to make our lives safe and comfortable, are too afraid to meet. This is the God who is most alive in those things we commonly associate with the Dark – failure, loss and brokenness.
The Christian church has legitimated certain ways of talking about God – male, fatherly, monarchical and so on. Many believe these descriptors tell the exhaustive truth about God. In accepting the complexity of her sexuality and identity, Rachel Mann has been able to explore with a greater freedom what God might look like to an 'unconventional creature' like her.

Rachel Mann is a Church of England priest and is Resident Poet at Manchester Cathedral. Her work – on rock music, poetry and theology – has been widely published in magazines, anthologies and newsprint



Friday 15 February 2013

ONE FULL-TIME VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN ADVICE HELPLINE WORKER


Salary range from £20,208 to £22,613 (incl OLW) per annum
Salary scale according to experience
Spoken knowledge of Punjabi, Hindi, or Urdu, is essential
In light of the nature and context of the work of SBS, the organisation considers that the candidate’s race and gender (Black/Asian woman) to be an occupational requirement in accordance with Para 1, Schedule 9, of the Equality Act 2010
Deadline for receipt of applications Friday 1st March 2013 by 5.00pm


http://www.southallblacksisters.org.uk/vacancies/

Dialogue around Female Genital Mutilation



Thoughts on Lisa Wade's paper  DEFINING GENDERED OPPRESSION IN U.S. NEWSPAPERS The Strategic Value of “Female Genital Mutilation” 

This are some of the thoughts Calum Walker had on this paper and his discussion with Lisa Wade. Calum has an interesting blog (on the history of emotions ) here is the link   http://scotinexile.blogspot.co.uk//

I guess it makes sense for me to write from the perspective of a journalist who tries to cover issues like FGM on occasion, and agreeing entirely with Lisa’s assertions of what happens, I hope I can shine a little light on why such things happen.
 
I suspect many of the reporters might consider themselves socially progressive and keen to see their work as contributing to a debate on a subject that does not get much airtime and so therefore they see themselves as good journos for just raising the issue in the national or even regional media and might be quite shocked to see their work analysed in such terms.
 
Many would suggest that they did not see such contextualising (ie putting in the parallels with western examples of oppression/mutilation etc) as directly pertinent to the story, and in the brutal confines of limited space they may have a point. However, the concept of ‘what is the story?’ itself often requires challenging and that is something journalism prefers not to do, citing practical matters as ways of not having to address such things more profoundly. Journalism and the media can be quite unforgiving environments for making mistakes and this can lead to a conservatism in approaching the format or structure of what is considered news.
 
Sadly very few writers and editors or NGO activists will have read Edward Said’s ‘Orientalism’ and understood how crucial it is to avoid exoticising the other and lazily relying upon NGO’s as the new ‘experts’ to guide them through such things which means they do not have to examine the foreign and see how it might relate to issues in their own society, because they consider themselves the neutral or good norm by which other cultures fall short.
 
Lisa herself said in an email to me: “Despite the differences between what the journalists said and what they quoted the activists saying, in other forums some of the (especially early Western) activists did very much take a "exemplarist" tone.  So I think the journalists were mostly parroting the activists they were most exposed to.  I suspect they were also trying to be sensationalistic and, in this case, what got eyeballs to read their story also felt beneficial to the cause.  I did interview a couple, but this is mostly my sense of what was going on.”
 
Another level to that relationship in practice is the relationship of journalist to editor. Often a journo (often, though not always a freelancer who relies upon the editor for commissions) will write a piece and then have to edit/rewrite to better suit the needs of space and tone of the publication and sensibility of the editor, which can be fickle and not always considered. This then means the editor is keen to hype and sensationalise a story in order to make it ‘stronger’.
 
Editors would tend to describe in terms of making the narrative more powerful, simpler and clearer for the reader to understand but context is often the first thing to go in this quest for what they consider is a more clear story. Activists then see the finished piece and try to feed such styles as they see that as a way to raise awareness, which is an alternate currency in NGO circles as it often translates into cash when fundraising. It’s been quite interesting speaking to NGO activists over the last 15 years or so. It’s purely subjective on my part but it seems like there is less and less railing against how something is reported and a greater willingness to engage with the media on the media’s terms rather than by trying to improve the terms by which a debate or issue is reported.
 
But that then becomes a sensationalising loop which picks up bad habits so it comes as no surprise that lack of wider cultural context is quickly sacrificed if indeed it was there in the first place…

Monday 4 February 2013

FRRG - Film analysis Girl With a Dragon Tattoo.



Since we usually read papers why don't we analyse a film this time. 'The girl with the dragon tattoo' by Stieg Larsson (Swedish version with subtitles) created quite a stir when released in English.

It will be nice to analyse the film and look at the way it treats gendered violence in Sweden and how violence against women isn't dependent on nationality. The movies/books also looks at ideas of human trafficking it will be interesting to look at that aspect too.

Refreshments will be provided.

MMU only has the the DVD for the first film if you have the other two could we borrow them? Thank you. 


Date: 7th February 2013

Time: 4:00 pm

Venue: Elizabeth Gaskell Campus M13 0JA

Thursday 31 January 2013

Women's Health Conference Manchester 7th March, 2012


If you would like to attend please register at www.thebha.org.uk/womenshealth or contact the BHA HIV and Sexual Health Prevention Team on 0845 450 4247. Places are limited.
For more information please do not hesitate to contact BHA.


Saturday 26 January 2013

A discussion on Gloria Anzaldua's book

We discussed  "movimientos de rebeldía y las culturas que traicionan" the second chapter in  Gloria Anzaldua's  book Borderland / La frontera: the new mestiza

Click here to hear an audio recording of the discussion.


Comments and critiques are welcome. 

Psychology of Women's Section annual conference call for papers

The annual POWS Conference is looking for abstracts here is a link to the website.

http://pows.bps.org.uk/pows/conference/conference_home.cfm

Bursaries for the conference are available too. 

Tuesday 22 January 2013

Women in Prison: Sisters in Chains

25th January will be the protest and speak out in support of women prisoners in the US and the UK. It will take place outside Holloway Prison in London and if you'd be able to go, just go the facebook event page, sign yourself up and hitch a ride - or whatever it takes!

However, as a sister Bia Aziz in the Black Feminists group also told us:

Two-thirds of women in UK prisons are in for non-violent offences and the “criminalisation of survival”: shoplifting, non-payment of fines, sex work, offences linked to drug addiction and so-called benefit fraud – unlike well-paid bankers who steal from the public, women living in poverty get prison....

Women of colour are the fastest growing sector in the prison population and are three times more likely to get a prison sentence than white women. Immigrant women who are alone in the UK are often deprived of what families provide and suffer the agonies of separation.

Which raises the question. For those of us who think with our hands and feet, what is it that we can do to help ourselves. I do not speak for everyone in the FRRG, but in case I raise any concerns about the flavour of this new blog, please note I am not a great theorist nor am I very well read and I will never pretend to be. But the more of the world I see around me, as I see how easily we are pushed around by the vagaries of economic policy and trade indexes (look how a recession has left many of our social initiatives having to fight with each other and go cap in hand begging for scraps from local councils), I start to wonder: what is it that we can do?

This is all the more true for us women of colour who are as ever affected disproportionately. What can we do for our sisters and our daughters? How can we strengthen ourselves?

If you hold classes perhaps in practical skills or self esteem - do you need volunteers? Regular donations? A spare room? I am naive, I don't know the world, but as far as I can see, it is time for us to use the ingenuity that we have allowed to be crushed by our culture of consumerist capitalism that has reduced and disabled us, we liberated women of the 21st century!

The event can be found here.

Monday 14 January 2013

Domestic Abuse Conference

Interesting free conference on domestic abuse.



Background Image- Harry Matthews

The wonderful background image is a painting by artist Harry Matthews here are a few shots of the painting. Thank you Harry :)   

Here is a link to Harry's website http://www.hazman.info/  http://www.harryart.co.uk/








Reading group's meeting.

Hello there let's pick up from last year how about reading (suggested my Miguel) "Borderland / La frontera: the new mestiza" by Gloria Anzaldua, chapter -2: "movimientos de rebeldía y las culturas que traicionan". How about meeting on 25th January 4pm?  Elizabeth Gaskell Campus. M14 0JA

Drop me an email if you want the paper. 

Friday 11 January 2013

Trafford Rape Crisis

I came across this wonderful service in Manchester. The website allows women to cover to access the site without leaving a trace. 


"A Free support - for women, by women - in relation to incidents of rape, sexual abuse or unwanted sex no matter when or where it happened.  We will listen, support and believe you". From the website. 

Contact information

Trafford Rape Crisis Website

Phone : 0800 783 4608

Black Asian and minority ethnic women's helpline: 0800 434 6484 

Email us: dorothytrc@hotmail.co.uk or if you'd prefer to email a black or Asian worker,dorothy.bme@hotmail.co.uk

The group has a closed Facebook group too.