Reality bites
Edition 91
It’s been a while! How are you?
Summer is over. The harsh truth of autumn (fall for those of you in North America) is always a hard pill to swallow - we’re all getting back to work, playing catch up on the multiple deadlines that have awaited us, as we spent the summer hiding from reality.
As we settle back into our routine — the headlines bombarding us remind me that in the long run, hiding from reality and creating perceptions of forward movement do more harm than good. It makes us think that we have evolved in our rights and life, far more than we have. It makes us cocky.
It maybe 2023, but ask yourself an honest question — how far have we really come as women, in the past 20-30 years? For all the flag waving, purported power women forums, networks and kitten ear marches — in my humble opinion not very far at all. Frankly, even more so if you’re a woman of colour.
Road Safety
If you are a woman reading this — you, my dear have been getting behind the wheel (along with almost 50% of car drivers on this planet) on a hope and a prayer, since crash test dummies were first mandated. Don’t believe me? The studies are pretty stark when it comes to the data on car crashes: We women are 73% more likely to be seriously injured in a frontal crash, twice as likely to be trapped in a wreckage, and here’s the most brutal fact - we are 17% more likely to die.
One reason is — since the first crash test dummy (Sierra Sam - a dummy with male proportions) was created in 1949, the law has only required car makers to conduct crash tests with dummies with male proportions! Why bother with female proportions (smaller/weaker necks/lower centre of gravity/slighter built/lighter) for almost 75 years since?
This month has brought about an overdue change! With much fanfare, the world’s first female crash test dummy was officially introduced to the world. Called SET 50F (sexy name eh?), the female dummy was designed by engineer Astrid Linder (yes, a woman) at the Swedish National Road and Transport Research Institute, to help keep women safer in cars.
I must admit I did find the press release announcing SET 50F slightly odd at first. It referred to Astrid as the model’s “mother.” My hackles immediately went up, as I fumed —would a male engineer be referred to as a parent of an invention? It turns out, the “mother” tag might have been quite calculated. Samuel Alderson, the creator of Sierra Sam (and the crash test dummies that followed) is often referred to as the “father of anthropomorphic dummy testing.”
So, thank you Astrid, for going where no man has gone before — for women’s safety! Read more at Euronews
Boys will be Boys
The past days in the UK has been full of gasps, shock and vitriol as yet another television/movie star was outed as a sexual predator. I was frankly more shocked by the number of people who were shocked - that comedian Russell Brand (a self-proclaimed sex addict who has consistently made his stand-up sets about the women he has used) could have cross lines and boundaries and preyed on women! It’s like they thought his joke sets were based on fiction! Which stand-up comic does that?
The furore started by the reporting of a joint investigation by the Sunday Times, the Times and Channel 4's Dispatches, in which four women accused Brand (I knew him best as Katy Perry’s short lived ex) of sexual assaults and rape between 2006 and 2013. You can watch the Channel 4 Dispatches documentary here. Trigger warning included!
I’m quite uncomfortable when it comes to trial by media, which this has quickly become. Lines are blurred, as is the evidence. Justice in these scenarios is secondary to opinion. Amber Heard for example, did us women a serious disservice perpetuating ‘The myth of the perfect victim’ as Time magazine described it.
Then again, it also makes sense that these women now in their 30s and 40s would come forward incognito to the press about the abuses they suffered, when young and vulnerable. What are their options after all? When it comes to accusing powerful men, especially those who earn a lot for the folks in charge of our broadcast news (and entertainment) - the odds are stacked against the victim. Then there is the lack of trust in our police (anyone remember Sarah Everard murdered by a serving police officer, or the abuse suffered by women who protested her murder at the hands of that very same police force?). Women’s lack of faith in the British judicial system of course is a whole nother debate.
What also didn’t shock me was Brand’s videos before and after the story broke, denying the victims’ claims. Or the vitriol spewed by his followers across social media. We all know misogyny is alive and well on these platforms. Being anonymous really helps spur the dark side of people, doesn’t it? The U.S. network NBC’s former host Mika Brzezinski learnt the price of not catering to the Brand, all the way back in 2013. Even Brand’s former colleague, Comedian Katherine Ryan hinted at his depravity and megalomania in 2018. She didn’t name him saying the person she was accusing of being ‘predatory’ was vicious and had an army of lawyers! Other female comics have claimed predatory behaviour isn’t just a Brand problem, that it is still rampant in the industry.
What has shocked me though is the thought process of those who are expected to hold themselves, and others to account (editors, journalists, even a politician here and there). I’ve heard some try and justify the Brand story by purportedly posing it as a question of a ‘changed value system today’, Vs 10-15 years ago. I’ve heard the 1990s and 2000s being described as a time of “Lad culture,” “a Mad Men era” - the old ‘boys will be boys’ to explain it away. Like assault and rape were lifestyle choices then? Who knew?
What is even more depressing than making the conversation about changing values, is to frame this story to be about a singular man’s ‘alleged actions and persona’. Shouldn’t the question be about why women weren’t empowered then to report what is, and was a crime? Why managers of these powerful men enabled them despite the obvious illegality of their actions.
But most importantly why aren’t we having heated debates about how to ensure young women today don’t have to wait 10-15 years to talk about the trauma they experience? Because inappropriate behaviour by men in positions of power is still happening every day in every industry. It’s like these men are deaf/blind or simply don’t understand basic human code of conduct.
The juiciness and star factor of the Russell Brand story buried the one about oil and gas company BP’s CEO Bernard Looney’s shock exit. He resigned less than four years into his tenure. He admitted that he failed to fully detail relationships with colleagues. BP said: “Mr Looney has today informed the company that he now accepts that he was not fully transparent in his previous disclosures.”
Also in the news and lost in the noise - the Cboe (exchange and derivatives exchange) boss who had to quit for the same reasons as Looney and the software CEO who had to step down for preying on young employees. And that’s just the body count for this month. Let’s not open Pandora’s box about each individual case that has come out since #MeToo became a global movement.
What do we need to ask now is how to make powerful people accountable for their conduct? What can we do together with our allies to ensure young women (and men) don’t have to wait till they are older, confident and wiser - and know they have options for seeking justice - now!
Can sing, write songs, but you aren’t articulate!
Rolling Stone magazine’s co-founder Jann Wenner was “removed from the board of directors of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation” this month. A hall of fame he helped set up!
The announcement from the Hall of Fame was short, terse and offered no further insight into what a pretty big deal for the music industry is. But who needs words in a press release when the reason is obvious.
Jann Wenner has a book out on September 26th called “The Masters.” It contains 7 interviews Jann conducted with music’s biggest legends over his storied career. In his own words Jann’s entire career was based on his want to “be a part of the world of rock and roll.” Turns out not only did Jann Wenner allow his music interviewees (even during his time heading Rolling Stone) edit their own interviews (breaking all objective journalistic norms), but those he picked to be called ‘The Masters” are/were all white men.
When he was pressed by The New York Times in an interview about the book, Jann defended his decision claiming Black and female artists were not as “articulate on an intellectual level” as the people he chose to feature.
“It’s not like they are not creative geniuses, it’s not like they are inarticulate - although go have a deep conversation with Grace Slick or Janis (Joplin), please be my guest!”
He was even more disparaging of Black artists (even legends like Marvin Gaye and Curtis Mayfield) whom he describes even in his book’s preface, as not being on his zeitgeist and not articulate enough to be called ‘Masters’.
He dug a further hole for himself during the interview claiming: “for public relations sake maybe I should have gone and found one black and one-woman artist to include here. They didn’t measure up to the same circle’s standard to avert this kind of criticism.”
I guess we women and people of colour are just good at writing songs, performing them, making a lot of money for music labels and music magazines like the Rolling Stone. I also guess Jann forgot to read his own magazine that featured Black Women (oh boy! I combined his two pet peeves there!) who shaped rock. Somebody lay his biased logic on Tina Turner and Alice Coltrane’s graves. Or tell Dolly Parton, Beyonce, Taylor Swift, Celine Dion and the others dominating the music scene - they’ve been doing it all wrong!
Hear the interview on the NYT conducted by David Marchese that ended a musical reign. (Scroll to the bottom of the story for the interview’s audio - at 20:08 hear his comments on Black and female artists)
Insecurity
A year on, Mahsa Amini’s death anniversary was greeted in Iran with protests and struggle. Observers claimed they were muted and smaller than had been expected. The Iranian government still has the power to shut its people up. The regime has used death threats, arrests and intimidation to prevent any large gatherings to remember Mahsa or the hundreds who have disappeared, or died in protests since.
Over the past few days, the regime even managed to pass stricter head scarf laws, just days after Mahsa’s death anniversary. 152 of 290 lawmakers in Iran’s parliament have pushed through a law that would put a woman in jail for 10 years if she doesn’t comply with the new rules. It also extends punishments to business owners who serve women not wearing a hijab.
The international community for all its claims of support has been unable to get through to a regime that hangs its hat on the subjugation of women. At last week’s UN General Assembly (UNGA), the President of Iran Ebrahim Raisi was in attendance. He was even allowed to address the assembled nations of the world. Diplomats would say you must keep the dialogue open, even with the most brutal of regimes.
Israel’s UN ambassador protested, purportedly on behalf of Iranian women. Gilad Erdan even called Raisi the “butcher of Tehran” and was escorted out of the assembly. But his comments thereafter, made his protest a tad murky in context. His seemed clearly a political Israeli agenda rather than any real concern about Iran’s women.
Before Iran’s women suffer the same fate at those in Afghanistan, the only option left for us is to create enormous pressure on the political establishments in our respective countries, whether they are Iran’s friend or foe.
It is us, simply asking powerful men to ‘calm down!’