The Lilith eZine Sunday Edition
Letter from the Editor
In 1971 Linda Nochlin popped the question "Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?". The answer she gave is that artists are effected by social forces and "that art is not a free, autonomous activity". Instead artists become famous and "great" as the result of the institution of art, the stereotype of the artist-genius, and that women artists are not given the same status because women don't fall into the stereotype of the artist-genius.
Essentially, male artists being accepted as geniuses is the status quo and self-perpetuating. So in reality it is not a matter of skill or genius. It is purely psychological. There are plenty of great women artists out there, but they're not treated the same way because women aren't considered to be geniuses.
Indeed historically women's art has largely been considered to be "arts and crafts", comparative to things like knitting and quilting. But seriously lets stop and consider knitting. What genius woman invented knitting? Somebody, extremely skilled with knots, must have had a brainfart and the next thing you know they've combined yarn and two knitting needles and created elaborate garments composed of knots.
While we're at it, what genius woman invented bread? How did someone, regardless of their sex, manage to combine flour, sugar, water and yeast, and heat it to the point of creating an edible substance? It is a mind-blowing thought to invent such a complicated food substance with little or no previous knowledge of chemistry. Egypt is home to the world's oldest known yeast-bread bakeries and it is presumed it must have been an Egyptian that somehow first figured out the intricacies of baking.
For whatever reason however the women who invent things, or create great works of art, aren't treated like geniuses the same way men are. If a man had invented bread or knitting we would probably know his name, but because it was likely a woman who invented these things their names have been lost to the mists of time.
While we're at it, was Pablo Picasso really that great? I think not. He stole most of his ideas from other artists. Even he himself admitted that Guernica was not as successful as he wanted it to be, and thus Picasso never again attempted a large scale work.
Sincerely,
Suzanne MacNevin
Editor of the Lilith eZine
The Art History Archive
Martha Rosler
Feminist Art Practices & Political Art
Pablo Picasso
The Feminist eZine
Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?
The Sex eZine
Flirting
July 13th 2008
The Lilith eZine Sunday Edition
Letter from the Editor
Less than a month from now the Olympics will begin in Beijing China. Leaving nothing to chance China is even drilling its Olympics hostesses in how to smile for 10 minutes at a time, and to hold that position flawlessly.
To pass testing they must always show between six and eight teeth and be capable of unflinchingly holding their grin for 10 minutes at a time. Training includes hours of walking around with a chopstick clamped between their smiling teeth to build up their facial muscles.
800,000 students are being taught how to clap and cheer in unison, and even the weather will be strictly controlled using "cloud-seeding" techniques to ensure it doesn't rain during the Olympic Games' scheduled hours.
For all its welcoming smiles, for all of China's cultural heritage and charm, this is the face of modern China. A rigidly controlled one where Freedom of Speech is only allowed if it doesn't go against the government's wishes and where even religion has to be strictly controlled and government sanctioned.
The Communist government has even made a set of strict rules for how Chinese are expected to behave during the Olympics, with severe punishments for disobedience.
For example failure to to be neatly dressed will result in people being "transferred to public security departments". That is just for a minor infraction, likely the result of public drunkenness.
There are much more worrisome rules like how Pro-Tibetan demonstrators are to be imprisoned during the length of the Olympic games and only released at the end. There's even a silly new law saying that demonstrators need a permit to demonstrate, implying imprisonment will be done without trial and violators will have no due process.
Then there is all the propaganda prepared for the games. The Chinese government has created a lengthy list of statistics to show all the improvements China has made in recent years. Many of the statistics seem geared to cover up some of China's very serious problems.
The Chinese government claims the carbon monoxide levels in Beijing has dropped 39.4% since 1998, but since its one of the most polluted cities in the world I doubt it makes a difference. With all the rules and propaganda China is pushing many visitors are likely to be both impressed with China, and utterly dismayed with China's government.
Sincerely,
Suzanne MacNevin
Editor of the Lilith eZine
PS. I don't recommend drinking the local water.
The Art History Archive
Visionary Art
Manifesto of Visionary Art
The Politics eZine
China
Letter from the Editor
Less than a month from now the Olympics will begin in Beijing China. Leaving nothing to chance China is even drilling its Olympics hostesses in how to smile for 10 minutes at a time, and to hold that position flawlessly.
To pass testing they must always show between six and eight teeth and be capable of unflinchingly holding their grin for 10 minutes at a time. Training includes hours of walking around with a chopstick clamped between their smiling teeth to build up their facial muscles.
800,000 students are being taught how to clap and cheer in unison, and even the weather will be strictly controlled using "cloud-seeding" techniques to ensure it doesn't rain during the Olympic Games' scheduled hours.
For all its welcoming smiles, for all of China's cultural heritage and charm, this is the face of modern China. A rigidly controlled one where Freedom of Speech is only allowed if it doesn't go against the government's wishes and where even religion has to be strictly controlled and government sanctioned.
The Communist government has even made a set of strict rules for how Chinese are expected to behave during the Olympics, with severe punishments for disobedience.
For example failure to to be neatly dressed will result in people being "transferred to public security departments". That is just for a minor infraction, likely the result of public drunkenness.
There are much more worrisome rules like how Pro-Tibetan demonstrators are to be imprisoned during the length of the Olympic games and only released at the end. There's even a silly new law saying that demonstrators need a permit to demonstrate, implying imprisonment will be done without trial and violators will have no due process.
Then there is all the propaganda prepared for the games. The Chinese government has created a lengthy list of statistics to show all the improvements China has made in recent years. Many of the statistics seem geared to cover up some of China's very serious problems.
The Chinese government claims the carbon monoxide levels in Beijing has dropped 39.4% since 1998, but since its one of the most polluted cities in the world I doubt it makes a difference. With all the rules and propaganda China is pushing many visitors are likely to be both impressed with China, and utterly dismayed with China's government.
Sincerely,
Suzanne MacNevin
Editor of the Lilith eZine
PS. I don't recommend drinking the local water.
The Art History Archive
Visionary Art
Manifesto of Visionary Art
The Politics eZine
China
July 6th 2008
The Lilith eZine Sunday Edition
Letter from the Assistant Editor
Wikipedia is the ultimate tool for spammers and stalkers.
Think about it.
Thanks to the user information files you can look up a person's interests, everything they've ever added or talked about on Wikipedia, and provides a stalker with some pretty detailed personal information.
Furthermore, it allows people to contact all the users who have contributed to a particular topic or topics just by clicking on the e-mail this user link. I have several issues with this.
#1. This is a clear violation of my personal privacy, but Wikipedia's Privacy Policy is sadly in need of an update. Wikipedia allows users to contact other users as much as they like, allowing them to abuse the system for any nefarious reason with little or no policy on abuse.
#2. It allows anyone to view your personal information, and email you about it, possibly posing as a person of authority or celebrity, and then using that personage to con you.
#3. Children use Wikipedia frequently for school purposes. It is discouraged by teachers, but they still do. Wikipedia thus becomes a back door for pedophiles and stalkers to contact your children.
#4. It allows spammers to narrow their focus to only those people who contribute to a particular topic. ie. Viagra, breast implants, fashion knockoffs, etc. More spam for you just for being an active user.
#5. It also means that if you make a change or leave a comment on a topic that someone else doesn't like, that person can then snoop into your personal information and then harass you for it. Wikipedia is a virtual forum for a plethora of controversial topics... and such discussions are bound to get personal.
I have complained to Wikipedia about the privacy issue and was bluntly told that nothing less than a lawsuit would encourage them to change their Privacy Policy and change the ease of use that people have for invading other users' personal data. I've decided to go the other way: Public Pressure.
Please email info-en@wikimedia.org and complain about their lack of measures to protect the personal privacy of users. We live in a society today that values personal privacy, but thanks to the internet and Wikipedia's lack of measures that personal privacy can be very easily invaded.
Sincerely,
Charles Moffat
Assistant Editor of the Lilith eZine
The Art History Archive
Pablo Picasso
The Environmental eZine
Solar Power becoming Profitable
The Fashion eZine
Canadian Fashion and Chic
The Politics eZine
Iran: Nuclear Threat of Hype?
The Technology eZine
Worth Repeating: Crapipedia: Wikipedia is Crap
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