Amazons International # 76 ************************** Contents: Words From Editor Svein Olav Nyberg: Barbie beats Hercules Dawn Sam Alden: Babes With Blades Joanna Cleo Frueh: My new book: Monster/Beauty Arne: (Pre) Historical Amazons (Re: AI # 75) Natasha Vita-More: Re: Bodybuilding (AI # 75) Haraphi: Artemis Spirit Svein Olav Nyberg: Strong where it matters Xylophone: Two Types of Women? Aliki: Bio; reverse gender roles Ingar Knudtsen: Testosterone and "male hysteria" Date of publication: 19.05.2001 ********************************************************************* From: Editor Subject: Words From Editor While it's been a long time since the previous issue of AI, that doesn't mean that nothing Amazonian has been happening, on the contrary a whole lot has happened. To mention a few things: My article, The Female Hero: A Randian-Feminist Synthesis is available on the web: http://www.ifi.uio.no/~thomas/po/female-hero.html . The online version contains a lot of links, and some additional text and updates not found in the printed version. Comments welcome. I've been continually working on and expanding my Amazon Connection web site, http://www.ifi.uio.no/~thomas/lists/amazon-connection.html . Speaking of the web site: some of you contact me asking about current e-mail addresses or web site locations of contributors to old issues of AI, and whether I will update the old issues with the current information. No, I won't. Those issues have been published and will remain as they are. But: if you look up the Amazon Connection, that is a good place to look for current URLs for those out-of-date addresses in the old issues. If you can't find them there, you are welcome to ask, of course; but I may not know the answer. Even better than asking would be if you did your own web search, and if you do find them, or something else that ought to be included in the Amazon Connection, please do tell! I've been elected Individualist Feminist of the month (May 2001) at Ifeminists.com. If you read this later than may 2001, you can find me in the archive at http://www.ifeminists.com/interaction/archive/members.html . I have a personal web page there as well, http://www.ifeminists.com/interaction/members/g/gramstad.html . Ingar Knudtsen, Norwegian fiction writer of fantasy, magical realism, history and science fiction, recently completed a new book, a follow-up to his classical amazon trilogy set in the early ancient Greece time period. The new book is set 20 years in time after the first three books. It will be published around Xmas or early next year -- in Norwegian, but there's work underway translating his amazon works into English. Meanwhile, you can check out his pentalingual (that's right, 5 languages) web site: http://forfatter.net/knudtsen/ . Now for some old and some new postings waiting to get out. And you won't have to wait this long for the next issue... Thomas Gramstad thomas@ifi.uio.no ********************************************************************* Date: Mon, 17 Jul 2000 23:54:09 +0200 From: Svein Olav Nyberg Subject: Barbie beats Hercules My niece lives in a family where gender stereotypes prevail. She has more Barbie dolls than I have fingers. But a while ago, this subversive uncle played with her and the Barbies. I got the Hercules doll. In good Hercules style, and in my dislike for Barbies, I declared "I am the strongest man in the world, and I can beat anyone!" -- whereupon Hercules struck Barbie to the ground. But to my surprise, my niece countered (with her Barbie): "You may be the strongest MAN. But I am the strongest WOMAN!" -- whereupon Hercules received such a good trashing I think he has been limping to this very day. Svein Olav Nyberg solan@nonserviam.com ********************************************************************* From: Dawn Alden Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2000 14:10:50 -0500 Subject: Babes With Blades, stage combat troupe I've been having a great time browsing through your Amazon Connection page and reading back issues of Amazon International. I wondered if you would be interested in including a link to our page. The site is for an all-female stage combat troupe called "Babes With Blades". I formed the troupe about four years ago in an attempt to do for the stage what Xena and Buffy have done for film and television. Stage Combat is the art of choreographing the fights and violence within plays to bring about the appearance of danger, while actually safe-guarding the actors. Women are very poorly represented in the field, both as fighters and choreographers and as it is a passion for me, I formed the troupe in an effort to show up the many all-male organizations in town. Our show has been and continues to be an incredible success, and has proved to me time and again that the title of Warrior is not the exclusive domain of the male gender. The web page is really the best representation of what we're all about, so when you get a moment, please check us out at: http://www.best.com/~jendave/BabesWithBlades I'd be pleased as punch (pun intended) to have you include us as a link, and will be most pleased to reciprocate with a link to you on our site. Dawn "Sam" Alden Producer, Director, Founder Babes With Blades http://www.best.com/~jendave/BabesWithBlades BabesWithBlades@juno.com ********************************************************************* Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2001 18:04:46 +0000 From: Joanna Cleo Frueh Subject: My new book: Monster/Beauty I'd like to announce the publication of my new book, Monster/Beauty: Building the Body of Love (University of California Press). Please look at the website for the book: http://www.ucpress.edu/books/pages/8785.html Here's what appears about the book in the California book catalogue: This daring, intensely personal book challenges both conventional and feminist ideas about beauty by asking us to take pleasure in beauty without shame, and to see and feel the erotic in everyday life. Bringing together her varied experiences as a poet, art historian, bodybuilder, and noted performance artist, Joanna Frueh shows us how to move beyond society's equation of youth with beauty toward an aesthetic for the fully erotic human being. A lush combination of autobiography, theory, photography, and poetry, this book continues to develop the ideas about the erotic, beauty, older women, sex, and pleasure that Frueh first addressed in Erotic Faculties. Monster/Beauty examines these issues using a provocative, often explicit, set of examples. Frueh admiringly looks at the bodies and mindsets of midlife female bodybuilders, rethinks the vampire, and revises our ideas about traditional models of beauty, such as Aphrodite. Above all, she boldly brings her personal experience into the text, weaving her reflections on female sensuality with contemporary theory. These linked essays are as much a performance as they are a discussion, breaking down the barriers between the personal and the academic, and the erotic and the intellectual. Frueh writes passionately and beautifully, and the result is a much-needed exploration of beauty myths and taboos. Joanna Frueh Professor of Art History University of Nevada, Reno Reno, NV 89557-0007 (775) 784-6682 jfrueh@unr.nevada.edu ********************************************************************* Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2000 19:03:47 -0400 From: arne Subject: (Pre) Historical Amazons (Re: AI # 75) AI # 75 was a great issue, particularly because of the contributions of Diana Morgan ! I am in agreement with her on the existence of a Patriarchy. As an artist I have always been fascinated by the art of the earliest Mediterranean civilizations: Minoan Crete, Old-Kingdom Egypt, and Sumer. In the wall reliefs, statuary, painting, frescoes, incised seals and other artifacts we can see that there was a period of time in which the equality of women and men was assumed. One of the persistent themes of this evidence is the acceptance of female nudity in day-to-day and ceremonial life. The goddess Inanna in Sumer, as well as her sister-goddess, Lilith, were always portrayed as nude when it was important to show their divinity in an illustration. In other words, nudity was an indication of divinity. When the patriarchal forces invaded and subverted these civilizations the images of women began to be clothed and the place of the female goddesses was lowered beneath the new "Zeus's" of the area. In Greece, it became a crime to portray a goddess nude, and "respectable" women were locked into their homes and covered by neck-to-ankle robes. Male nudity was promoted as the ideal of beauty. I believe that there is more than a casual association between female nudity and female power. Some psychological switch is pulled when a man is standing in front of a woman whose breasts are in full view. It doesn't happen with clothed breasts; the clothing is usually made so as to be sexualy suggestive. Why do we cover women's breasts in our culture anyway? They are certainly not "dirty". Yet the only place where women are encouraged to expose them is in the "girly" magazine or at a "nudie" bar. Both situations are under complete male control; as if, were women to let their breasts out, something dreadful would happen! I think something would happen; women would find that men would be unable to express hostility towards women. The Amazons fought with bared breasts for a number of reasons, but, whether they knew it or not, their breasts gave them a crucial psychological edge in hand-to-hand fighting. This is all speculation, of course, and proving it in our culture would be very difficult. For the past 3000 years women have been so accustomed to covering their breasts that they would be the last ones to suggest it. I would appreciate comments. In my art (sculpting) I refuse to show the coy sexual plaything with one hand over her breasts and one over her pubis. Instead, I try to portray the defiant sexuality which was lost by women when the Zeus-worshippers made women into property. Cheers, Arne Tully, NY, USA ********************************************************************* Date: Fri, 17 Nov 2000 08:13:23 -0800 From: Natasha Vita-More Subject: Response to Diana in AI # 75 Re: bodybuilding Diana Morgan, who wrote about bodybuilding in AI # 75, made some very broad and sweeping statements. However fluid her writing, she does not back up her facts and clearly did little, if any, research on what she wrote about bodybuilding. If she assumes that physical strength comes from will alone, she might want to rethink her premise. Women who build muscle do it for a number of reasons, one of which is for the sake of appearance. However, more importantly and as a primary reason, bodybuilding is a sport. Second, having muscular strength is a pro-health choice. Natasha Vita-More http://www.natasha.cc/ ********************************************************************* Date: Wed, 14 Feb 2001 21:50:01 -0800 (PST) From: Melanie Boisvert Subject: Artemis Spirit: Message for a New Millenium Heyla Amazon sisters, I feel Artemis Spirit is in the air at that New Millenium beginning. Artemis is a lot more than a goddess or a spirit, she's a mother, a guardian, a teacher, showing to women their own power, their path to follow to be free. She seeks for her children and show them their quest and identity. Every star is a sister, children of Artemis, her loyal warriors, priestesses... They ask us for remembrance. They can be also animals, all staying in perfect harmony in the dark sky of night with Artemis and past Amazons. They symbolize a Nation who want to rise from darkness and to fight again to rebuild a New Nation where light should be. Seek for Light in the Forest, for Artemis, for life. Darkness is the industrial world, the power of money. Darkness is the way of egoism, exploitation, inequalities and destruction. Light, our Path, is the way of equality, respect for every form of life, solidarity, community living. For me, you don't need to be physically strong to be an Amazon. Spirituality and intelligence are stronger than muscles... For me, an Amazon is a spiritual, instinctive woman, both warrior and priestess, a warrior seeking harmony... And for me, an Amazon must believe in the Light values. An Amazon is a moral being. An Amazon have a double entity with natural forces, by living in harmony with the cycle of life, we'll find the path of Artemis, the path of Light, a way of living and being we have to discover... AND FOR US Every star is a guide, a protector, a memory keeper... Look at them and you will discover the true Amazon Spirit. Haraphi haraphi@yahoo.com ********************************************************************* Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 23:25:01 +0100 From: Svein Olav Nyberg Subject: Strong where it matters -- grip strength "Strength training -- also for men" was going to be the title of my next essay for Amazons International. Men need strength training as much as women do -- not just for the obvious reasons, but for health. But it has dawned on me after reading AI lately that many women do not take their physical strength too seriously either. They like to be "mentally strong" but do not want physical strength. I just wonder -- why not? I was planning on asking that question of the men here, but see that I need to ask it of the women just as much. Physical strength is not only the outward manifestation of your inner strength and ability. Physical strength is also a necessity if you respect yourself as much as you say you do. Is it really sufficient if somebody violates you that you can think "But at least I didn't *want* it. At least I don't have a victim mentality."? Is it? Isn't it better to have implemented this touted self-respect in abilities for action? I am a guy. With guys the excuse is that they don't have time for training. I expect it is the same with many women who have nodded at the above, "but ...". Training takes so much time. No, it doesn't. I, a man of far below average genetics for strength, have built myself up to deadlifting 400 lbs by training ... once per week. One hour once per week. If it works for me, it works for anyone. I learned about this at http://www.cyberpump.com , where they have the best Q&A for strong women on the web, btw. All that is required of you is 1 hour per week. You have to put in your absolute best in that one hour, that's true. But when you're done, you have 167 hours left of the week. But what is the most useful type of strength? Notice that anything you do aside from running and kicking will have to be done with your hands. And the grip is the weak link in most people, but unfortunately especially so in women. Which is a shame, since you can't pull, grapple or lift more than you can grip. As an example, most people have more than enough strength in their shoulders and arms to bend a penny. What they lack is the grip strength to transfer that strength onto the coin. In a more urgent situation, it will be your grip that gives in first if you lose your hold on an attacker. Do you feel convinced that you need to check out grip training a little bit more? If you do, check out my grip pages at http://grippage.com/ , including the GripBoard, a web forum devoted solely to discuss grip strength. Svein Olav Nyberg solan@nonserviam.com ********************************************************************* From: xylophone1234@webtv.net Date: Mon, 4 Dec 2000 20:02:01 -0500 (EST) Subject: Two Types of Women? I thought that this forum might be a good place to share an observation and a prediction that I have made. I have observed that modern women seem to be comprised of two types. I use this generalization only for the purpose of clarification and simplification. It is not meant as a stereotype. I have observed that there is a group of women who seem to have adopted a traditionally "masculine" role while another group of women have adopted a traditionally "feminine" role. I have also noticed that the first group seems to be more mentally and physically able than the second group. For example, I have noticed that women who excel at academics also often excel at athletics. My prediction is that this trend will continue in such a way that there will one day be general differences among women that are analogous to the stereotypical differences between men and women in both mind and body. This message will likely generate little or no interest, but I thought I would pass it along in case there was any interest. You're welcome to privately e-mail me if you'd like to discuss the subject. Regards, Xy xylophone1234@webtv.net ********************************************************************* From: afikiori Subject: Bio; reverse gender roles Date: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 20:47:20 +0100 Hello, my name is Aliki and I am Greek. Aliki stands for Alice -- but not in wonderland anymore! Are there any other amazons from Greece? I was born in Athens and studied in the UK and Switzerland. Currently I am working as a freelance interpreter for the EU in Brussels and travel constantly between Greece, Belgium and the UK. My life has been quite unconventional and I have never adapted to the feminine-domestic stereotype. I believe that financial independence is the nr. 1 liberating factor for us women. I have separated after 20 years of marriage and my 14 year old son now lives with his unemployed father, whilst I work my butt off to support them. This decision that I took 4 years ago, forced me to confront the all powerful social stereotypes of "good/bad" mother, wife, and feelings of anger, grief, and guilt, but also freedom, happiness and personal fulfillment. I am now studying sociology with the Open University and my course focuses a lot on gender and identity issues. Feminist theories are also explored and I think they are fascinating. A whole new world of knowledge is opening up for me and I am thrilled. I have realized that there are now plenty of women who, having an interesting and well paid job, have taken on the role of "provider" and that more men are willingly or unwillingly acting as "nurturers". Willingly, either because they accept and actually enjoy their dependence on their well paid partners or unwillingly because of unemployment and redundancies. However, gender studies have not yet tackled the situation of a new "reverse" public/private divide, where men are at home and women out or away from home, and especially of women who reject the traditional role of "motherhood", and the effects on all three parties involved: men-fathers, women-mothers and children. Now that my son watches his father do all household chores will he be better positioned as an adult to accept equality and democracy in personal relationships? Will he undestand the wrongness of gender and sexual stereotyping? I hope so! Aliki afikiori@tiscalinet.be ********************************************************************* Date: Wed, 9 Aug 2000 14:07:37 +0200 From: Ingar Knudtsen Subject: Testosterone and the argument for "male hysteria" [Editor's note: the following posting by Ingar Knudtsen was posted to the Mujeres Libres mailing list (see http://www.geocities.com/Paris/2159/mujeres_mail.html ), in response to an article about testosterone: _The He Hormone_, http://www.photius.com/feminocracy/testosterone.html This posting was posted as two separate postings, but they have been merged into one here.] The idea of testosterone attacks the notion that all human beings are individuals, and in fact it "backfires" in the sense that it seems to indicate that male biology makes males "hormone crazy" and really unfit to make the decisions that one must make as an adult and responsible person. If the testosterone argument for "maleness" is true, then I pray that we men must never get any political power in the future, and we must speculate that all the wrongdoings ever since the patriarchs came to power a few thousand years ago have happened because we really are not of a sane and balanced mind. If the argument is true, then we men must in fact become feminists in fear of our own destructive nature. And our only hope for the future may be to be ruled like the irresponsible "boys" we are by a strong matriarchal power structure! As I said: IF the argument is true. But I think it is NOT! It is just one more boringly stupid attempt to divide the human race into two different species that cannot live and work together. It is another attack on human individuality from men that feel threatened by strong women. Masking once again behind the cloak of "science", the same kind of "science" used extensively by eugenic racists in Nazi Germany, to "prove" their own superiority. It's funny -- I have never seen anyone in power using science to prove their own INferiority -- even if this "testosterone" thing unwittingly may come dangerously close to doing just that. The conspiracy against equality is and have always been a loosing game, and if there is any hope for the future it must lay in letting all and everyone find and live out their own individuality in cooperation and respect for each others choices, regardless of all differences. And then I mean REAL choices, not the ones that society expects us to do. Of all "isms" few are more crippling both for women and for men than sexism and the notion of sex apartheid. My English is far from perfect, and as a writer I find it very painful not to find all the right words to express my thoughts in the way I can do so easily in my own language. But sometimes it is better to say something, even in a clumsy way, and in a foreign language, than not to say anything at all. By the way, I have written a trilogy of novels about amazons and their society, and this earned me the (in my eyes) honorable title of "traitor to my own sex". The books are unfortunately only available in the Norwegian language. There are all kind of gradual differences between the sexes, and how you behave and live your life is a choice. If you have the ability to give birth to babies, that is just one possibility in your life that makes you different from others, there are multitudes of differences that in some lives may be much more significant. There are even a lot of women who don't want to or even cannot have children. That determines some possibilities and choices, but how significant they are is a social and individual matter. I, being a man, chose to be what in most societies would be called being a "mother" to my children, and that was an experience that I would have missed if I had not rebelled against the gender norms asserting that not only are men and women different, they have different callings in life. My experience was that some women in my neighbourhood felt threatened by this and tried to tell me that as a man I should go to work instead, and be the "provider", not the "caretaker", in my family. This personal experience may or may not illustrate my point. Personal experiences can often make us ideologically shortsighted. By the way, recently I was "accused" by a man for having raised my daughters to be "men", that is, to be strong, independent and individualistic -- my answer was "no, I just raised them to be human". The only sure thing is that we are individuals. Some of us small, others are big, some are wise, some are unfortunately only "intelligent", while some are "stupid" at debates but do wonders at repairing the roof or fixing the car or teaching. Some have the inborn ability to bear children, but that does not guarantee that they have the ability to raise them or even love them. I don't know any normal work that cannot be done by either sex, apart from actually giving birth and breastfeed. This ability is of course important to humanity, but how important it is to the individual is a matter of choice, or sometimes, unfortunately, a matter of "accident". Pia Lasker, in a Swedish book entitled "Anarchafeminism", puts it this way: "The idea of two distinct, stereotypical sexes is a shortsighted idea, an unimaginative construction that we are bound into and that prevents us from blossoming into a multitude of individuals!". The book is in Swedish, and I may have lost something in the translation here, but she goes on to say: "Neither character, body language, personality, psychology, sexuality, work, social activities, biology, or physiological characteristics, can be traced back to the two categories that are called sex." I fully agree with that. I know women who are what a degenerate authoritarian and sexist society would call "male", and I know men who would be called "female". And in such a society they would be and are punished for it... Choices must be made individually, not by society, and not based on what others think you have to do or must be. In fact, to me, that is what the essence of anarchy is all about. Freedom and individual responsibility. Sexism IS in fact the idea that sex is the basis for our choices. Ingar Knudtsen i-knudts@online.no ***************************************************************** * Amazons International * * Thomas Gramstad, editor: thomas@ifi.uio.no * * Send postings to: thomas@ifi.uio.no * * http://www.ifi.uio.no/~thomas/lists/amazons.html * * SUBSCRIBE/UNSUBSCRIBE HERE: * * http://ifi-lists.uio.no/mailman/listinfo/amazons@ifi.uio.no * * * * The Amazon Connection -- Links to Amazon web sites: * * http://www.ifi.uio.no/~thomas/lists/amazon-connection.html * ***************************************************************** "A Hard Woman is Good to Find" -- The Valkyries