Turning the tables on male violence - a lesson from a lady

 I took a day trip to Genoa yesterday, to have a mooch around and see an exhibition on Artemisia Gentileschi and other female painters. I was blown away by it. And by the lesson to be learnt.

Genoa (or Genova) is the Mediterranean port that used to be capital of a powerful little maritime trading empire hundreds of years ago and its rich past is seen everywhere. My previous posts on Genoese culture include the origins of jeans and local trans life in the 1960s. 

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593-1656) was the first woman to be admitted to the academy of Florence, and the other painters on display like Sofonisba Anguissola, Rosalba Carriera, Elisabetta Sirani, etc. had similar accolades. Prior to that, female painters were usually nuns working in churches, so this was a new era in which an independent professional woman could make her own career.

The paintings were stunning and the curators had done a grand job.

The formative moment in her life was being raped at knifepoint by her father’s associate. She was able to secure his conviction and imprisonment. Ever after, her main theme was the determined woman getting the better of leering, strong or powerful men: Judith cutting off Holofernes’ head is a favourite subject; Cleopatra choosing suicide by snake rather than falling into the hands of the Romans; Delilah giving Samson a buzzcut; and Susanna and the Elders who want their wicked way with her as she bathes. This is likely a nude self-portrait, a bold statement of her feelings on this matter. 

Attributed to Artemisia Gentileschi, Susanna and the Elders, c. 1610

 

Fearing the violence of men is a constant concern for women. I too have taken the longer but better lit route home at night rather than increase the risk of attack, or crossed the street to avoid groups of men, even in a safe city like London. Bringing rapists to justice remains very difficult. Artemisia's testimony was subject to the most rigorous testing, by judicial torture. Even so, she did not back down on her story, and that gained the confidence of the court. We do not resort to such horrible practices today but securing convictions for such crimes remains hard. The world is seeing an upsurge of male aggression, bullying, war and violence, tapped into by some very unscrupulous politicians, and women are bearing more of the brunt of that, not to mention the reduction of the rights of the LGBT+ community. More on that another day. 

This woman turned the cruelty in her life to good effect, creating formidable paintings that inspired a whole movement in the art of the era that depicted strong women, by contrast to all too prevalent male notions of women being the weaker sex.

More of Genoa

It was quite a grey day for the most part, with stormy seas, so I wasn't able to get the best photos, but a few odd bits and pieces include this jolly lion guarding the steps of the cathedral:

 

wheels of cheese in this shop window (I think that customer buys a lot of cheese!):

 

and this beautifully painted building on the dockside with a centrepiece of St George slaying the dragon:

I couldn't get a better shot because, as in so many places in the world, a major road passes right in front of it on an elevated section, which you can see a bit of in the top left corner. Ah, the 1960s, age of free love and flyovers!

Most of the rest of the time I spent enjoying the shops and stalls, took the metro just for the fun of it and strolled through the narrow streets of the old city. A good day out.

Sue x

Women's Day and more

 Every day is children's day, they say. Every dog has his day, they say. Today is International Women's Day, so third place is not bad. Could do better. Pardon my slightly cynical opening but I see women's place in society is still in need of improvement, and that certainly goes for trans women. Still, I'd like to wish a happy women's day to all. 

Here the mimosa (also known as silver wattle) is the gift given to women on this day and the fluffy yellow blooms are brightening up the local hillsides right now.

The rest of my post has a decidedly international flavour, too.

Veronika Arden's World

I've added this interesting blog from Austrian blogger, Veronika, to my blogroll. She likes to go out sightseeing and shopping in what is evidently a rather beautiful part of the world and has a lot of photos of her and her region. Welcome Veronika, and thank you for your comments.

Veronika writes in German but there is a translation button so you can select English ... or any other language, from Kazakh, Punjabi and Zulu to Scots Gaelic. Take your pick. Or tok ya pok. Or towk yarr pekk. You get my drift.

Veronika's blog

 

Brianna Ghey, RIP

I was very affected by this poor girl's unjust death in Cheshire, where I live when I am in Britain. Her funeral will be on March 15th and the theme will be pink. I approve of pink! Details from Cheshire Live: Brianna Ghey funeral arrangements 

Her family and friends requested a bit of online help to give her a fitting sendoff. Their target of £4200 has ballooned to over £113,000 and counting. I hope this and the crowds expected to attend will give her a really beautiful memorial and show that love trumps hate.

I had an email from the organisers that I would like to share:

Thank you everyone for your generous donations. Our family have been overwhelmed with the positivity and support we have received during the hardest weeks of our lives. If Brianna could see the amount of support she has received she would be thrilled.
Thank you xxx

Rest in peace, lovely.

 

Spain

I tried to go to Barcelona last month but strikes put paid to my plans. So I am trying again next week and may be offline from this Saturday onwards. As well as a bit of sightseeing, I'd like to get a feel for what trans life might be like there. It seems to be particularly vibrant.

 

Lost in trans-lation

A final comment on translation bots like the one Veronika has from the master himself, C-3PO:

Sue x

Harry Potter and the Bully as Victim

 So everyone's favourite dictator is moaning that the world is being unfair to his culture that only wants what's best, right and fair. Russia doesn't deserve to be bullied by an expansionist West, just like poor JK Rowling whose adherence to the noble and just cause of transphobia leads her to face the opprobrium of so many. Poor Vladimir, poor Joanne, both oppressed by nasty 'cancel culture'.

I could write an essay but ... just gimme a break here, will you?

You can always tell the bully. Deep down they are not the confident persona they throw around but empty souls terrified of being discovered to be mediocrities living in a false reality of their own devising. The bizarre and depressingly childish lies of the Putin regime about Ukraine, democracy, NATO and all the rest of it make you wonder about the sort of people we regard as leaders. I have just read Mary Trump's biography of her uncle Donald, and it's the same thing, an utterly false narrative that drives the life of that fraud. I should know: my aggressive, supremacist father is the same.

Probably the world's best known transphobe, J K Rowling, has her narrative. Beaten by her husband and near destitute, it goes, she wrote Harry Potter in a café and it just happened to be a success. But I know authors - I have several published books myself - and it is almost impossible to earn a living from being creative. Yet she is nearly a billionaire. No writer has ever achieved this - Walter Scott and Charles Dickens, equally bestselling in their day, struggled with money. 

That's because, first and foremost, Rowling is a canny businesswoman who, despite the ferocious narcissism and moneyspinning of Hollywood, has managed to keep a firm proprietorial hand on her creation. That is not a skill normally associated with creative types as their introverted visions are not consistent with the need to market themselves. Aggressive artists have limited qualities as artists but are good at selling themselves; really skilful and genuine creatives usually fail to be known widely by virtue of that very soul-searching that makes their artistry great but leaves them with little social boldness. So much of what we see in art galleries, read on bookshelves, watch on TV, is not the best of creativity but art that has been marketed successfully. What is pop music if not music that's popular by direct reference to its position in the market in any given week, rather than music that may actually be any good? Rowling is extraordinary in combining a knack for writing books that kids want to read with promoting her very firmly controlled business that derives from them.

So her success has made her an establishment figure, a rich and famous person who is known for supporting charities, especially women's charities, and who is also known for taking on political bullies (her tweets against Trump were among the best). And yet she insists on the false narrative that male-to-female trans people are dangerous, which I have previously referred to as a racket. In so doing, she now has the support of other transphobes in churches, the ones who were only too glad in the early days to condemn her books as encouraging witchcraft and unchristian beliefs. Phobia and bullying never require consistency, merely the opportunity to find a victim and damage them, all the while claiming that the victim they have picked represents a danger to them and that they are only defending themselves. 

So Ukraine is Nazi (ah yes, the country whose president lost his uncles in the Nazi Holocaust), NATO is aggressive (it's defensive), the Russian president is elected by the Russian people (since the opposition are killed or in jail), and so on. Similarly, MtF trans people are a danger to women (MtF trans people want nothing more than to be treated as women), trans people have suddenly emerged (trans people have always existed), there is a subversive trans agenda (no agenda, nature creates us), etc.

The bully as victim: the age-old story of the delusional aggressor trying to justify their hate by accusing their target of the very aggression that the bully is perpetrating. I am so sick of it. Having largely failed in discriminating against ethnic minorities, having largely failed in bashing gays, the phobics are turning to ever smaller minorities to try to crush someone, anyone. It happens to be trans people at the moment. If we stand firm they'll eventually move on to some other group, some other bunch of harmless folks, no doubt. 

But at least Putin publicly associating himself with Rowling finally does more to discredit her transphobia than anything else, despite her robust and just response to his linking her with his mania. An own-goal for bullies and transphobes, I'd say.

(This meme is doing the rounds and I am unable to credit the creator)

 

Sue x

Fluffy things

 I had a lovely sprig of mimosa for International Women's Day earlier this week, which is the traditional gift where I live. It's cheerful yellow fluffballs were so pretty and a nice feminine tonic in the midst of the macho warmongering of the week.

As I've said before, being trans, being a woman, is not just about the clothes. It's everything. I like nail varnish and chick lit and cute things. I am not quite so worried as I was a fortnight ago about this war as there is a sudden sense of purpose in the rest of the world and suitable action being taken, but I know that the next few weeks and months are going to be horrific to hear about. Confirmation bias is largely contributing to this Western sense that the Ukrainians are the plucky underdog who will defeat the bully based on their early successes, but those of us who've worked in international affairs know that the Russian war machine has always been incompetent, yes, but also big and brutal. 

So I bought a soft toy, just something to look friendly and for cuddling if need be. OK, so Raimonda the Ray here also matches the cushions (that's not coincidence!) but she's for comfort, too.

 

I wonder if, like Morgan Freeman seeing Black History Month as ridiculous, I don't perhaps see International Women's Day as a sop to women from the men who actually run the world. Look at this body language from everyone's favourite tyrant last week. Putin keeping aloof from his generals and advisors, like a Renaissance prince, but sitting within cuddling distance of pretty air hostesses. 

 

This is macho culture writ large and I hate it. We know what a world run by men is like: horrible. It's not the body or the clothes that really make a woman but outlook and attitudes and behaviours. 

And Raimonda thinks so, too.

Sue x

More wins for gender fluidity

 First of all, happy International Women's Day. I count myself a woman. 

Here in Italy there is a tradition of giving women a bunch of yellow flowers, known as mimosa (Acacia dealbata, to distinguish from the other plants known as mimosa). 

 

Picture: Eugene Zelenko

There are lots of these mimosa trees here on the coast of NW Italy, but they aren't native but come from SE Australia. The climate here suits them, as it does the various species of Australian gum tree growing behind the house that give off a lovely smell, especially after rain. I digress (again! - curse you, stream of consciousness).

Well, it's nice to get a bunch of flowers but there is still a lot of discrimination in the workplace, there's is still so much violence against women, and other injustices. Who'd be a woman, eh?

 *

The Sanremo Music Festival is a huge event in Italy, providing five nights of prime-time TV, five hours a night! Common sense would have cancelled it this year but there's too much money and morale riding on it. The Festival spawned the Eurovision Song Contest. 

The winners of this 71st annual festival were a rock band called Måneskin, a somewhat gender-fluid group that remind me in many ways of the glam rockers that had quite an influence on me when I was little (see Who is David Bowie?). 

Instagram screenshot, from BlogLive.it

 

This is a very public way of raising the profile of gender non-conformity, although it's hardly something new in the celebration of camp that is European pop. The band leader insisted that all members receive bouquets of flowers, not just the one genetic girl. This win is a source of satisfaction to the LGBT community here. 

Less content is the local bishop, Antonio Suetta, who is a well-known homophobe and transphobe, and who called this all a disgraceful spectacle during Lent. I'll leave it to you to consider his comments, given that his public appearances are usually in flowing ankle-length numbers with pastel facings, or delicate white lace kaftans and purple boleros.

The bishop and his band; full-length and lacy is their funky style. (c) Riviera24

 

Frankly, he should be defrocked! (goes the old joke).

I can't advise you on the quality of the winning song as I have a poor ear for music, but here it is. I believe it will be this year's Eurovision entry. I won't translate the (surprisingly clear) lyrics as they contain Rude Words, and my blog's not into that.

Måneskin Sanremo 2021 

 *

More trans advocacy and outreach this past week from various people I know. 

There's a nice article about Jan Eldridge, a friend I used to meet up with quite a bit at Pink Punters in England. She's moved to New Zealand where she works in academia and is out as trans in her profession. Nice photo of her, too.

Mindfood L'Oréal Women of Worth: Jan Eldridge

Lynn Jones of Nottingham Chamaeleons has been guest on talley.app's weekly call on LGBT History Month. Her report here:

Conversations with strangers

Thank you, Lynn. 

And Chrissie Chevasutt, who appeared in the Invisible Prison video I mentioned a few weeks ago (More quality trans videos, blogs and books) has a book coming out in July about her experiences, especially regarding her faith and her church. There are many trans autobiographies out there, almost all self-published, but this is being published by Darton, Longman & Todd, a reputable publisher of mainly religious books. You can pre-order from Amazon but as I cannot approve their business practices it's preferable to go directly to the publisher:

Chrissie Chevasutt: Heaven Come Down

I am sure I will link to it again when it actually comes out. Given my own struggles with an oppressive religion when I was younger, I will certainly find it interesting. I have found Chrissie's story very moving. Here's a link to the video again:

The Invisible Prison

*

All quite encouraging in difficult times like these. Keep well and safe.

Other news: I keep losing weight, very slowly but at least steadily.

I notice from the Blogger stats how popular my guide to perfumes in the last post is proving to be (Perfume: a guide for trans women). So I may do more guides as the realities of having a different body mean you can't just wear/do what takes your fancy.

 

A dip in the archives

Covid lockdowns first started in the West this time last year. As if there weren't enough links in this post already, I'll link back to my post last March giving some advice on how to survive isolation at home. It's still valid:

How to survive isolation at home 

A year ago, as Covid started to grip

 

I've been coping all on my own for a year now, but I confess I am getting desperate to go on a long-distance trip, eat in a restaurant again, see friends and hug them. Patience.

Sue x

Cari lettori italiani

Io non m'intendo della musica ma sono contento di vedere che a Sanremo ha vinto un gruppo che ridefinisce le norme sulla presentazione di genere. Ogni piccolo simbolo di fluidità di genere è buono.

Sue x

Please explain the mind of the alpha male to me

 

I've just seen a clip from a TV interview from the other day when the chief of police in Naples was asked about any initiatives his force was adopting to improve protection for women against rape and violence.

"Good evening," he started, "before coming to that question I'd like to express my deep sorrow at the death of Diego Maradona, a legend in this city and all-round great guy, blah blah ..."

 

Priorities, eh?

 

Of course, Maradona was known for punching his partner in public on more than one occasion.

Also gone this month was Sean Connery. Like Maradona, a man who entertained millions. And believed women should be hit, and said so many times. Don't believe me? Here's one interview:

 

Sean Connery on hitting women 

Sean, if a woman's coming at you with flick-knives in her shoes or a rocket-firing helicopter, then self-defence is fine. Otherwise, no.

 

Donald Trump is losing his job as President, a man whose attitude towards women is vile. His departure will be a relief.

I've never understood the alpha male. I hated being brought up as a boy by such people. They really are like a gorillas, brutish and cruel. Football, films and reality shows are hugely popular and somehow that forgives these men's mistreatment of women. And with many women confined at home now because of Covid we have seen violence against them by their partners increase. So, Mr Police Chief, maybe it's time to concentrate, or move on.

 

A dip in the archives

Also passed away this month was Jan Morris, historian and travel writer, one of the highest-profile early transitioners who made the public realise that, though not common, transitioning really was a thing. Rest in peace.

Jan Morris in 1974, when she published "Conundrum", her book about transitioning

Sue x

 

Women, the winning team

 As a trans woman, I obviously root for the women's team that's increasingly succeeding in a world previously dominated by men. I like to be part of that team, despite the bizarre aggression of certain feminists who, instead of concentrating their complaints on the predatory men who are their real bugbear, choose the easy route of finding a weaker group like trans women and taking it out on them. Most transwomen are against predatory, aggressive males, too. We never could deal with this overmasculinised world and are only too glad to embrace our femininity. We've seen the world the alpha male has made and, frankly, it could do with considerable improvement. Time for the ladies to make their mark.

A few weeks ago the Nobel prizes were announced and several women received these prestigious awards, some in their own right and not as part of male-dominated teams so prevalent in science. The Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna for their work on gene editing. Andrea Ghez was one of the winners of the Physics Prize for her work on black holes. And the prize for literature - a prize field surprisingly dominated by male authors (101 out of 117 winners are men) - went to American poet Louise Glück (I've not read her yet but will do so). It's pleasing to see that women are being recognised in areas that have been so dominated by men.

Of course, honourable mention for women at the top goes to Kamala Harris for becoming the US's first female VP elect. And I'm pleased to hear the US now has a transgender senator.

Talking of Nobel, here's a picture of Villa Nobel in Sanremo, Italy, where Alfred Nobel spent the later years of his life. There's a lab in the basement where he conducted experiments on explosives. The big gun in the garden was used to test them by firing out to sea, much to the discomfort of local fishermen. Legend has it that he created the Nobel Peace Prize to counter the murderous uses to which his mining explosives were being put, but I suspect it was the locals who pressured this maniac into considering a bit of peace for once! 

It does illustrate, though, that men do tend to like the aggressive exploitation of the world. As we face up (or ought to face up) to the fact that we have been trashing our planet, I do think that a different approach from that of the alpha male of our apish species is very necessary. I'm not suggesting that positive discrimination is the approach; that would be wrong and can disguise underachievement. But it is good to see that women's contribution is being recognised, that women are reaching the top.

 

A dip in the archives

To people who think that the transgender spectrum is a modern phenomenon, I always talk about trans people and culture of the past. Going to the very far past, legendary times even, I'd point out how Hercules, the epitome of Greek and Roman masculinity, was forced to serve Omphale, Queen of Lydia. This was especially degrading from the point of view of Hercules' own high social status. Initially Hercules suffered forced feminisation as a maid (which, of course, is a subculture within the trans spectrum). Early accounts suggest that Hercules was genuinely humiliated by this; later ones suggest he delighted in gender reversal with the queen after she freed and married him. And Hercules' appreciation of his feminine side and subsequent desire to dress seems to have remained in later adventures according to some writers. So there you have it, even the most macho of men may actually have a preference for something less hulkingly male. I have always felt that a lot of macho culture was really just a desperate, consuming attempt to deny something preferable, easier even.

Hercules wears a dress and holds distaff and spindle (representing women's work) whilst Omphale sits bare-chested wearing Hecules' lionskin and holding his trademark club (bashing people semi-naked being men's work). Roman mosaic from Spain, 3rd century AD.

Sue x