saferpublicspaces

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KOT DA SE JE VMES ZGODILO NEKO VELIKO ZAPIRANJE TELESA Radharani Pernačič: S tem si me spomnil tudi na različne pogovore o kolektivnih ustvarjalnih procesih v navezavi z odpiranjem »egalitarnega« prostora za posameznikovo (ne)zanimanje, voljo itd. Razmišljam, kaj se pravzaprav dogaja z empatijo (tj. sposobnostjo vživljanja) – brez česar gledališča sploh ni (ne s strani ustvarjalcev ne gledalcev). Zame vživljanje (kot veščina) pomeni predvsem, da sem zmožna vstopiti tudi v nekaj, kar mene predhodno, samo po sebi ne zanima, vendar ravno z empatičnim poslušanjem zanimanje drugega postane moje zanimanje. In če torej v delovnih procesih obenem odpiramo vse več prostora za to, da lahko vedno vsak reče: to me (ne) zanima/ jaz bi raje to (ne bi tega) … Bi rekel, da gre tu za nek paradoks ali mogoče za neko nujno vmesno, prehodno fazo, ki je lahko tudi zdrava, da se osvobodimo določenih imperativov, vsiljevanj? Oziroma kam se ta veščina potem sploh še vmešča – kako vidiš soobstajanje empatije in vse več prostora za artikulacijo individualnih interesov, ki ostajajo pri svojem? Rok Vevar: Mogoče lahko na to odgovorim tudi s tem, kar v zadnjih 10 letih zaznavam v zvezi z občutljivostjo za drugega: ples spremljam že dobrih 20 let in v tem času so se zadeve v zvezi s to kulturo drastično spremenile, in sicer povezano s tem, kako so bila telesa odprta, ko sem začel spremljat to polje, in kako so odprta zdaj. Kot da se je vmes zgodilo neko veliko zapiranje telesa.

http://koridor-ku.si/oder/cofestival-rok-vevar-ustvarjalci-na-podrocju-sodobnega-plesa-se-ne-ukvarjamo-vec-z-dokazovanjem-smisla-obstoja-te-umetniske-prakse/

#sodobni ples #rok vevar #kolektivno ustvarjanje #empathy

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Grobe šale so uničile možnost, da bi se med nami ustvaril občutek varnosti in zaupanja. Če bi prevladal, bi se morda ob babičinem naglem nizanju informacij še kakšna nosečnica drznila spregovoriti in jo prositi za pojasnilo, ali so res vsi posegi v telo, ki jih omenja, nujni, in kaj sploh pomeni vse to medicinsko izrazje.

  Zapravljena priložnost v šoli za bodoče starše

#materinstvo #varnejši prostori #nosečnost

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Gayten-LGBT has released a collection of works titled “Trans, intersex, queer” which talk about Trans and Queer activism in Yugoslavia

You can download it here

(its in Serbo-Croatian)

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SAFE SPACES — PARTICULARLY IN THE CONTEXT OF RADICAL POLITICAL ORGANIZING - OFTEN STEM FROM THE FAILURES OF LIBERAL POLITICS TO ACCOUNT FOR STRUCTURAL INEQUALITY AND PROTECT AGAINST RACIALIZED AND GENDERED VIOLENCE.  The activist roots of safer spaces reveal an important tension between their political language and that of many of their critics. Where mainstream attacks on safer spaces repeat the liberal notion of free speech as a transcendental good, safe( r ) spaces—particularly in the context of radical political organizing—often stem from the failures of such politics to account for structural inequality and protect against racialized and gendered violence.

Marie Thompson, “The Discomfort of Safety”

#safer spaces #safe space #inequality #free speech #Caring Community

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Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners

The first time I went to a Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners meeting, I was the only woman there, but after some time other women came and what was clear was that the reason that not many women were involved in the group was partly because there was a core of men in the group who were all very activelly involved in politics, and they were all trying to promote the policy of their groups, and making it the line of the group. That intimidated and bored a lot of women who weren't involved with politics in that way, so they didn't - so they stopped coming to meetings. So what me and some other other women did was to form a separate group within the group, called Lesbians Against Pit Closures, which we saw as part of the nation-wide network of women who were working in the strike. And we started organising ourselves separately.

Women in the communities that have been on strike have come forward as a force. They campaigned, they demonstrated, and not just stood behind the men in the mining communities. And in that, they found that women can be effective as women.

As the support of the women during the strike became stronger and became central and important, I think it showed a lot of trade unionists that if women ceased to be excluded from the movement, if they were included, if women's rights came on the agenda, if sexual politics came on the agenda in trade union politics, then the trade union movement would gain in strength.  

Lesbians Against Pit Closures (London) and other activists talk about the role of their groups in support of the National Union of Mineworkers and various mining communities during the UK miners strike of 1984–1985. Taken from the documentary film All Out! Dancing in Dulais (1986).

#lesbians against pit closures #lesbians and gays support the miners #miners strike #dulais #political organizing #solidarity

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"I think this movement is useful in many ways. To begin with, one if its ideas is that women get together and talk. What they go through at home often creates acrimony and resentment. Because housewives aren't always sweet little angels. In spite of it all, they feel the injustice. Instead of enduring this injustice, complaining uselessly on their own, it's better that women talk to each other about their problems, just between themselves, not with men. And that they seek solutions. It would save them a lot of bitterness. It would also help them to understand their situation, to think about it, and afterwards, I'm sure they'll want to unite in order to change it. So it's something that would be extremely useful, with such far-reaching effects that it would change society as a whole."

Simone de Beauvoir in a 1975 TV interview, speaking about the usefulness of the Women’s Liberation Movement for housewives. 

#simone de beauvoir #women's liberation #feminism #housewives

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“OUR ONLY AUTONOMY LIES IN HOW WE NEGOTIATE AND USE POWER AND VIOLENCE OURSELVES

There is no space we can create in a world as damaged as the one we live in which is absent from violence. That we even think it is possible says more about our privilege than anything else. Our only autonomy lies in how we negotiate and use power and violence ourselves.”

“We have set up a model where all parties are encouraged to simply negotiate how they never have to see each other again or share space. Some impossible demands/promises are meted out and in the name of confidentiality lines are drawn in the sand on the basis of generalities. Deal with your shit but you can’t talk about the specifics of what went down and you can’t talk to each other. The current model actually creates more silence — only a specialized few are offered information about what happened but everyone is still expected to pass judgment. There is little transparency in these processes.”

Angustia Celeste in “Safety is an Illusion”

https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/anonymous-the-broken-teapot.pdf

#safer spaces #safe space #community #transparency #silence #abuse #power #anarchism

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I THINK THAT IF YOU WANT TO SAVE SOME THINGS FROM BEING TAKEN OVER BY CAPITAL YOU HAVE TO ENCLOSE THEM. I think that if you want to save some things from being taken over by capital you have to enclose them. You think of some spaces like woman’s centers, community centers, they can be sort of heavens as part of a political process but they survive because they are enclosed in some way. For example Zapatistas enclosed their space and said we are the government of that space. So I think there is sometimes a mix up, in the commons literature which is anti-enclosure and I am not anti-enclosure at all, I am saying well you have got to be interested sometimes in enclosing things in order to protect them. Heterotopic space has to be protected. How do you protect that, you have to enclose it, only in that way it can be protected. Even anarchist communes by the way tend to have enclosures.

Taken from “An Interview with David Harvey: Practice of Commoning“

#david harvey #enclosure #safer spaces #woman's center #heterotopia #anarchism #community

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The 5th episode of the 19th season of South Park parodies the idea of safe space as part of the series’ continuing lampoon on political correctness. It focuses on the idea that safe spaces cannot be separated from the intrusions of “cold hard” Reality (personified by a menacing wizard or thief) and depicts identity-based safe spaces as intellectual prisons, rather than shelters were you can learn to engage with people and ideas you might find uncongenial or wrong.

#safe space #parody #south park #political correctness

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Greg Lukianoff’s and Jonathan Haidt’s article about accusations of “microaggressions” and the growing demand for “trigger warnings” at universities in the United States, arguing that this trend among students is creating a culture of vindictive protectiveness which hurts the student’s capacity to think critically more than it is hurt by offensive speech.

Originally published in The Atlantic.

#trigger warning #safe space #university #mental health #free speech #microaggressions

[saferpublicspaces]

Prakso (majhnih) skupin žensk vidim kot prakso 'faze ogledala', kjer bi se ženske tudi videle in ne bile zgolj gledane. Zakaj so v tej fazi moški izključeni? Ne zato, ker so moški, ne zaradi njih samih, ampak zaradi nas. Zato, ker se vzpostavi čisto drugačen tip komunikacije, ko je na sceni moški subjekt (pa tudi, če ni 'tipičen moški', tudi če je njegova pozicija 'ženska', če je še tako senzibilen, vse to ni važno, ker ne gre za to, kar je on, ampak za to, kako se mi organiziramo okrog njega, kako se nastavimo pogledu, kako nezavedno in samodejno izvržemo svojo klasično pozicijo, ki nam je najbrž že v genetskem kodu). Zdi se mi zanimivo izkusit, kako šibajo stvari, če nimaš nasproti Drugega (ali signifikantnega drugega), ampak drugo žensko.

Tanja Rener, “Alica v deželi čudes ali o ženski seksualnosti”. Govor v K4 na prvem žuru ob ustanovitvi skupine Lilit (Ljubljana, 4. april 1985) 

#lilit #ljubljana #1985 #tanja rener #ženske skupine #varnejši prostori

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WE MIGHT HAVE TO GIVE UP ON THE IDEA OF PERSONAL SAFETY TO BE ABLE TO MAKE SPACE FOR OTHERS We have to remember that every time we interact with each other we represent different positions. Sometimes our privileges are limiting other peoples freedom some times our freedom is limited by other peoples privileges. And so, to really challenge or positions we might have to give up on the idea of personal safety from time to time to be able to make a safe space for others. And this very process in it self is not safe. It is scary and challenging and even painful at times. (...) Unfortunately we experienced that having a set of strictly defined rules (the SSP) actually created a bit of paranoia. It generated a very strong fear of fucking up and a constant expectancy that someone else would. (...) We would like to stretch the idea of safety - so that safety also means a space where fucking up isn't something so painful and shameful that no one dares to even really try to change their ways. We would like for the festival to be a space where we are not afraid to challenge our selfs and each other. Where we can develop our politics, theory and social behavior together, where we can fight our ism's and phobias together. A safe space is not something we can just claim to have, it is something we continually need to work very hard to create.

Copenhagen Queer Festival

#safe space #privilege #queer #copenhagen queer festival

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Can anyone deny that in our culture all it takes to call a woman's integrity and creditability into question is exposing the fact that she has a vagina is not a cis-male? (...) If we (meaning all of us in this culture we live in) are to learn to accept and value women's contributions as easily and fully as we do men's, the double standard, which rests on the assumption that visibility in public space strips a woman of her respectability, has got to go. And that means, of course, that most sexual harassment that occurs in public space must be recognized as an instrument intended to instruct women that they can exist in public space only as sexualized objects, never as speaking subjects. (...) What is wrong with "the feminist woman"? She speaks in public.

Timmi Duchamp, editor of Aqueduct Press, in "Sexual Harassment and Public Space"

#Timmi Duchamp #sexual harassment #safer spaces #public space #feminism #sexualization

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"Oh, that feeling of safety, of arrival, of homecoming, when we finally reached the edges of (grandmother's) yard ... "

bell hooks, originally published in Yearning: Race, Gender, and Cultural Politics (Boston, MA: South End Press, 1990, p. 45-5).

"I certainly cannot compare my experiences and memories of home with an account like that of bell hooks, who pictures the "homeplace" as a "site of resistance". Nevertheless, the need to not measure our lives by the demands and values of the capitalist labour market was always assumed, and at times openly affirmed, as a principle that should guide the reproduction of our lives. Even today, the efforts that my mother made to develop in us a sense of our own value give me the strength to face difficult situations.

Silvia Federici in "Preface" to Revolution at Point Zero, PM Press, 2012

#bell hooks #homeplace #safer spaces #silvia federici #resistance #self-value #reproductive work #labour of love

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Uninviting

Screenshots from Orange is the New Black (Episode 10, Season 2), in which the prison's correctional officer and social worker Sam Healy, known for his explosive fits of anger, decides to start a "safe place" or counseling group for the inmates. As expected, nobody comes ... except for prisoner Tiffany "Pennsatucky" Doggett, who owes Healy her release from solitary confinement and access to dental care.

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Excellent article about language policing, explaining the difference between censorship and social activism. By Jack Halberstam: "... as LGBT communities make “safety” into a top priority (and that during an era of militaristic investment in security regimes) and ground their quest for safety in competitive narratives about trauma, the fight against aggressive new forms of exploitation, global capitalism and corrupt political systems falls by the way side."

#Jack Halberstam #trigger warning #safer spaces #language policing

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Today at 12.00, the feminist radio show Sektor Ž aired a report from the meeting on safer spaces for WLT* in Potsdam, featuring an interview with the organizer, Tea Hvala. The show was prepared by Ida Hiršenfelder and Teja Oblak. In Slovene.

#sektor ž #radio študent #safer spaces #teja oblak #ida hiršenfelder #tea hvala