From LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU Tue Feb 12 16:50:50 2002 Date: Tue, 12 Feb 2002 18:38:36 -0600 From: "L-Soft list server at UIC (1.8d)" To: Laura Q Subject: File: "FEMINISTSF-LIT LOG0103B" ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 07:38:17 -0500 Reply-To: feldsipe@erols.com Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: feldsipe Organization: or Lack Thereof Subject: Severna Park Lectures Comments: To: "LambdaSF@onelist.com" , "LambdaSF_Announce@onelist.com" , "FEMINISTSF@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU" , "Gaylaxicon1999@onelist.com" , "Gaylaxicon99Announce@onelist.com" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all-- If you're going to be in Philly this Friday night, you might consider adding this to your list of things to do: At 9 P.M. at the International House, South America Room, 3701 Chestnut Street, Phila., Pa., Severna Park, Nebula Finalist and Lambda Literary Award Finalist, will be giving a lecture entitled, 'THE MATRIARCHAL ORIGINS OF THE CURRENT PATRIARCHY' or 'YOUR MAMA' for the Philly SF Society. All are welcome. There is no charge. -- Severna Park Nebula Award Finalist See my short story, The Golem, on the Nebula Preliminary List: http://www.sfwa.org/private/nar/prelim.htm#shorts See my website! (Is it cool or what?) http://users.erols.com/feldsipe See The Cure For Everything on SciFi.com! http://www.scifi.com/scifiction/originals/originals_archive/s_park/ ------------------------------------------------------ This is the FEMINISTSF-LIT listserve, intended only for discussion of feminism and Speculative Fiction. To unsubscribe from this listserve, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU and in the body of the message say: unsubscribe FEMINISTSF-LIT Contact FEMINISTSF-LIT-request@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU if there are problems. ========================================================================= Date: Thu, 8 Mar 2001 08:32:13 -0800 Reply-To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: Maryelizabeth Hart Organization: Mysterious Galaxy Subject: HOUSE OF SECRETS MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Was this the list where someone mentioned she'd liked the original "House of Secrets" comic miniseries? I noticed a new "House of Secrets: Facade" two part just started... Maryelizabeth -- ******************************************************************* Mysterious Galaxy Books Local Phone: 858.268.4747 7051 Clairemont Mesa Blvd, Suite 302 Fax: 858.268.4775 San Diego, CA 92111 Long Distance/Orders: 1.800.811.4747 http://www.mystgalaxy.com General Email: mgbooks@mystgalaxy.com ******************************************************************* ------------------------------------------------------ This is the FEMINISTSF-LIT listserve, intended only for discussion of feminism and Speculative Fiction. To unsubscribe from this listserve, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU and in the body of the message say: unsubscribe FEMINISTSF-LIT Contact FEMINISTSF-LIT-request@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU if there are problems. ========================================================================= Date: Fri, 9 Mar 2001 13:48:54 -0800 Reply-To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: Joyce Jones Subject: The torture of women worldwide All of these could have come from The Terrorists of Irustan, unfortunately it's not science fiction. Joyce Broken bodies, shattered minds -- The torture of women worldwide << News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty International * 6 March 2001 ACT 40/003/2001 26/01 The torture of women and girls persists on a daily basis across the globe, Amnesty International said today in a new report on the torture of women worldwide -- Broken bodies, shattered minds. "It is fed by a global culture which denies women equal rights with men, and which legitimises violence against women." "The perpetrators are agents of the state and armed groups, but most often they are members of their own family, community or employers. For many women, their home is a place of terror." "K", from the Democratic Republic of Congo, was married to an army officer who regularly tortured her often in front of their children. He repeatedly raped her, infecting her with sexually transmitted diseases and frequently threatened to kill her with a gun. During one incident, he knocked out a tooth, dislocated her jaw and punched her in the eye so hard that she required several stitches and had continued problems with her nose, neck, head, spinal column, hip and foot. "K", who finally sought asylum in the USA, said it was futile to approach the police, both because of her husband's connections to the ruling family but also because "women are nothing in the Congo". A US immigration judge characterized the abuses she had suffered as "atrocities" but denied her application for asylum, a decision upheld by the immigration appeal court. The report is part of Amnesty International's global Campaign Against Torture, and urges governments to commit themselves to protecting women and girls from torture. Governments which systematically fail to take action to prevent and protect women from violence in the home and community share responsibility for torture and ill-treatment. "States have a duty under international law to prohibit and prevent torture and to respond to instances of torture in all circumstances. However, all too often, far from providing adequate protection to women, governments have connived in these abuses, have covered them up, have acquiesced in them and have allowed them to continue unchecked." Violence in the home is truly universal. According to World Bank figures at least 20% of women have been physically or sexually assaulted. Official reports in the US say a women is battered every 15 seconds and 700,000 are raped each year. In India more than 40% of married women reported being kicked, slapped or sexually abused for reasons such as their husbands' dissatisfaction with their cooking or cleaning, jealousy or other motives. In Egypt, 35% of women reported being beaten by their husbands. Some groups of women are particularly vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment and face multiple discrimination. They are not only tortured because they are women but also on the grounds of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, social status, class and age. Many domestic workers are foreign nationals who are frequently ill-treated by their employers. They are unlikely to be able to obtain redress because of their immigration status. Nasiroh, a young Indonesian woman went to work in Saudi Arabia in 1993. She told Amnesty International that she was sexually abused by her employer, falsely accused of his murder and then tortured and sexually abused by police officers during two years' incommunicado detention. Officials from her embassy did not visit her once. Her trial was so cursory that she did not know she had been convicted and she still has no idea for what "crime" she was imprisoned for five years. "Honour crimes", such as torture and killing, are reported from several countries including Iraq, Jordan, Pakistan and Turkey. Girls and women of all ages are accused of bringing shame on their families and their communities by their behaviour -- ranging from chatting to a male neighbour to sexual relations outside of marriage. The mere perception that a woman has damaged a family's honour can lead to torture and ill-treatment. Women who have been bought and sold for forced labour, sexual exploitation and forced marriage are also vulnerable to torture. Trafficking in human beings is the third largest source of profit for international organized crime after drugs and arms. Trafficked women are particularly vulnerable to physical violence, including rape, unlawful confinement, confiscation of identity papers and enslavement. Women are frequently singled out for torture in armed conflicts because of their role as educators and as symbols of the community. Tutsi women in the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, and Muslim, Serb, Croat and ethnic Albanian women in the former Yugoslavia, were tortured because they were women of a particular ethnic, national or religious group. Women who have been tortured can face many obstacles in seeking redress. Obstacles include police indifference, failure to define abuses as criminal offences, gender bias in the courts, and legal procedures which hamper fair criminal prosecution. Ms G was traded by her parents to a neighbour as a wife when she was 15 in exchange for his assistance in paying off the mortgage on their farm in El Salvador. Her husband routinely raped and beat her, resulting in injuries which required hospitalization. Ms G went to the police twice for protection, but was told her problem was personal. She ran away with her two children when she was 20 but her parents and husband found her. Her mother held her down while her husband beat her with a stick. Ms G fled to the USA and applied for asylum and has been told she will be deported. In many parts of the world, police routinely fail to investigate abuses reported by women and frequently send abused women back home into abusive situations rather than file complaints. A study in Thailand found that police usually advised women to reconcile with their violent partners and women have to bribe police to pursue the complaints. Globally only 27 countries have legislated specifically against rape in marriage. If a woman in Pakistan fails to prove she didn't consent to sexual relations with a man, she can be accused of zina (fornication), an offence punishable by stoning to death or public flogging. In some countries, women cannot got to court in person -- their male relatives are supposed to represent their interests. Women in Saudi Arabia who leave their home to seek help from the police run the risk of arrest for being in public unaccompanied by a male relative. "It is high time that governments recognized that violence in the home and community is not a private matter, but involves state responsibility. International standards clearly lay down that states have a duty to ensure that no one is subjected to torture or ill-treatment anywhere or by anyone," the organization said. "If states neglect this responsibility, they share the responsibility for the suffering they have failed to prevent." Amnesty International's report sets out detailed and achievable recommendations to governments. They include; public condemnation of violence against women, criminalizing violence against women, investigating all allegations, and prosecuting and punishing the perpetrators. To register your support for the Campaign Against Torture, visit www.stoptorture.org ------------------------------------------------------ This is the FEMINISTSF-LIT listserve, intended only for discussion of feminism and Speculative Fiction. To unsubscribe from this listserve, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU and in the body of the message say: unsubscribe FEMINISTSF-LIT Contact FEMINISTSF-LIT-request@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU if there are problems. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 03:11:47 -0800 Reply-To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: Joyce Jones Subject: BDG Terrorists Of Irustan Discussion is pretty slow on this book. Someone asked what we thought of Jin-Li's statement that the women of Irustan live much as they did on earth as if that meant she didn't realize how restricted their lives were. I think she might not have been aware of the totality of restrictions, but coming from the life she had on earth, she knew how restricted women's lives could always be. Yes, Jin-Li could use a phone, but would she have been willing to travel unescorted as a female on earth? Don't most of us have some fear of traveling unescorted at night in the city? That's what it is to be a woman. If the laws don't keep us in our homes, the society does its best to comply informally. I think that's what people in Jordan say about crimes of honor in which male family members murder women for sexually dishonoring their families. There are no formal laws providing for this. It's just the custom that allows them to go nearly unpunished. One thing that I loved about the book was Zahra's deep moral sense. She was very reluctant to kill even the despotic men that she did. Murder to her was not just something she would be punished for, it was crossing a moral line. An example of this is the very realistically drawn scene of her visit to the city to kill Binya Maris. She knew that in her guise as a prostitute she might actually have to have sex with him. She didn't want to, she'd planned her best to avoid it, but she was willing to accept the possibility as the price she had to pay to further her goals. Many women, if I'm correct, have been canonized because they died rather than giving up their sexual purity. Zahra valued her body and her personhood, but life to her was more important than transitory defilement. Contrast this with the priest in The Sparrow going crazy because he was raped. The fact that her individually reasoned morality came from within while his came from the teachings of a church made her the stronger person. Another thing that kept me thinking about Terrorists was the complex relationship between Zahra and her husband. He was good to her, the benevolent dictator that christianity honors in a marriage, but she did not love him in any sexual way. She was rather determined not to love him in that way. Since she had been given to him, she was not going to voluntarily give of herself. Yet she knew that he would be the one punished for her crimes. If she saved herself, he would die for her political statement. She was not willing to let him die partly because she respected him, partly because, valuing life as she did, she was not willing to be the cause of the death of a good (though ignorant) man, and partly because she was not willing to be the cause of individual deaths for individual reasons. Her whole goal was revolution which could be accomplished only by her taking responsibility for her actions. Octavia Butler would have had her compromise and live while the female population remained enslaved until aliens rescued them. I liked her heroism as I like the idea that individual heroism can change society. Lastly, I really liked her death. It was so "Brazil". I think death in the cells would be like that rather than the agony that the Irustani threatened. Having witnessed a few deaths, they have seemed to be transcendent positive experiences for the dying person. Any book with good birth scenes and/or good death scenes, like Conqueror's Child, gets my money every time. Oh no, one more last thing. Didn't you love the medicator? I could really use one of those. Joyce ------------------------------------------------------ This is the FEMINISTSF-LIT listserve, intended only for discussion of feminism and Speculative Fiction. To unsubscribe from this listserve, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU and in the body of the message say: unsubscribe FEMINISTSF-LIT Contact FEMINISTSF-LIT-request@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU if there are problems. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 09:45:34 EST Reply-To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: Phoebe Wray Subject: Re: BDG Terrorists Of Irustan MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 3/10/01 6:12:31 AM, hoop5@LVCM.COM writes: << Another thing that kept me thinking about Terrorists was the complex relationship between Zahra and her husband. He was good to her, the benevolent dictator that christianity honors in a marriage, but she did not love him in any sexual way. >> I agree with Joyce on this. The complicated relationship between them was nicely drawn, I thought. The time that she had sex with him out of feelings of gratitude and appreciation for his better self seemed exactly right to me. best, phoebe wray ------------------------------------------------------ This is the FEMINISTSF-LIT listserve, intended only for discussion of feminism and Speculative Fiction. To unsubscribe from this listserve, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU and in the body of the message say: unsubscribe FEMINISTSF-LIT Contact FEMINISTSF-LIT-request@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU if there are problems. ========================================================================= Date: Sat, 10 Mar 2001 10:14:28 EST Reply-To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: Phoebe Wray Subject: Re: BDG: Conqueror's Child -- Religion MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit In a message dated 3/6/01 2:05:53 AM, jdawley@IMPOP.BELLATLANTIC.NET writes: << Religion doesn't look good in *The Conqueror's Child*. Alldera, the person in the series who most deserves the designation of protagonist, is deeply suspicious of most metaphysical ideas. >> I would agree with this. But then, why not? As you note, the Holdfast men used a religion that smacks of the Christian patriarchy, cubed and distorted. But this made sense to me, Alldera's rejection that is. Seems to me many women have rejected and are rejecting the excesses of the patriarchal religions. Some then search in the other direction - towards the goddess. But that doesn't work for all, who then become suspended between a need and a vacuum. Alldera's lack of spirituality, if you will, didn't bother me. The women needed to DO things for themselves, out of their own strengths. In their situation, it was more prudent to trust themselves than a unseen Host (or Hostess). I loved this series. Couldn't read fast enough. best, phoebe w ------------------------------------------------------ This is the FEMINISTSF-LIT listserve, intended only for discussion of feminism and Speculative Fiction. To unsubscribe from this listserve, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU and in the body of the message say: unsubscribe FEMINISTSF-LIT Contact FEMINISTSF-LIT-request@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU if there are problems. ========================================================================= Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 11:13:21 -0500 Reply-To: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC Sender: Feminist SF/Fantasy and Utopia Literature ON TOPIC From: "Deborah A. Oosterhouse" Subject: Re: BDG Terrorists Of Irustan MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit One of the things that I liked about Terrorists was the variety of complex relationships. There were so many different characters who had different ways of responding in their situations. Even among Zahra and her friends, there were different responses to, for example, their husbands--Zahra's relationship with her husband was very different from her friends who were married to more cruel men (like the guy who wanted to marry his daughter to a man who had already beaten two wives to death) and different again from the one who was married to a very good man and genuinely loved him. However, I think even this latter case can be considered representative of the tragedy of their society--she ended up with a caring, loving husband mostly through chance, she got lucky, rather than through any belief that women should be respected as persons. A woman's safety and happiness, especially in her own home, shouldn't depend on being lucky enough to have been married to a decent man. I also liked the rather hopeful note on which the book ended. Although recognizing that problems will still exist and they have a long struggle ahead of them, the women take the first steps in freeing themselves. It was also very cool that Zahra's husband finally came to realize the problems of their society and what Zahra had been trying to do. Deborah ------------------------------------------------------ This is the FEMINISTSF-LIT listserve, intended only for discussion of feminism and Speculative Fiction. To unsubscribe from this listserve, send a message to LISTSERV@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU and in the body of the message say: unsubscribe FEMINISTSF-LIT Contact FEMINISTSF-LIT-request@LISTSERV.UIC.EDU if there are problems.