Broad Recognition: » Incoming Freshman Writes Coming of Age Story, is Produced Off Broadway

Incoming Freshman Writes Coming of Age Story, is Produced Off Broadway

Hannah Zeavin — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 05:13:38 +0000

Photo: Rahav Segev

August 11, 2011

Ruby Rae Spiegel’s play Carrie & Francine debuted Off Broadway last week. It has been reviewed in the New York Times. Spiegel is an accomplished woman, having won numerous prizes and received accolades for her work in the theater. The playwright also happens to be an incoming freshman at Yale.

Carrie & Francine is described as a coming of age story, set “in America at a time when girls are made to believe they need to grow up fast.” And while the action shows that Carrie and Francine are two thirteen-year-olds who do feel as though they must act grown up, the play does not fall into the worrisome and simplistic conceit in which the girls and society in this particular generation are especially to blame for “bad” behavior. Spiegel does not, despite the play’s 35 minute running time, give her audience an abridged answer as to why her two main characters act as they do, under pressure. The play, due to its more subtle thesis, does not state that girls are doing things that are ‘mature’ to impress themselves and men. Instead, the reality of Carrie & Francine is more complex than that. The play concerns itself with female friendship, eating disorders, girls gone wild, bar mitzvahs, and thirteen year old sexuality–not just the media and its effect on young girls.

Perhaps this is why Speigel’s play was shocking to some in the audience–the play does not provide its spectator with a clear scapegoat on whom to pin Carrie and Francine’s behavior. Nor is it possible to just write off the girls. Carrie and Francine are smart and witty. They chat about Freud, Catcher in the Rye, and their math homework while simultaneously teaching one another how to make themselves throw up or demanding that one finger the other in the bathroom. They are more aware than the one adult character (who appears during a scene in the bathroom for all of two minutes) and more self-reflective than Francine or Carrie desire to admit. Or, perhaps, it was shocking to see two young women manage to inhabit these characters. Lydia Weintraub (Carrie) and Louise Sullivan (Francine) are both rising sophomores in high school.

Spiegel handles her chosen material with utter grace and ease. Her cast and their execution is phenomenal. The dialogue is fast, and raises the ongoing question: what does it mean to be a young woman, and how is that exactly accomplished?

Carrie & Francine is featured in Throughline Artists’ Summer Shorts 5 this month at the renowned 59E59 theater in New York City. Tickets are available here.

Hannah Zeavin is a senior at Yale University. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Broad Recognition.

The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia: A Failure?

Hannah Zeavin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 16:57:50 +0000

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

By HANNAH ZEAVIN

July 28, 2011

One of the things I was most excited about in going to Cambodia this summer was the promise of being in Phnom Penh while the The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia was in session. The Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC) is a tribunal that was established by an agreement between the Cambodian Government and the United Nations in 1997. For nine years the Court struggled to secure funding, find buildings, and set up a hybrid rule of law based on the French Civil Law system. This legal structure, coupled with the Court’s mandate, limits the ECCC’s jurisdiction, but allows it to operate both nationally and internationally. The judges, lawyers, and support teams that comprise the tribunal are a mix of Cambodian and international officials.

The mandate from the Cambodian Government and the United Nations allows the Court to prosecute only “those most responsible” as well as the leaders of the Democratic Kampuchea. This excludes most low-level Khmer Rouge cadre from the mandate of the Court. Furthermore the Court only has jurisdiction over certain violations of varying legal code. For instance, it can prosecute crimes that violate the 1956 Penal Code of Cambodia, as well as several international conventions against genocide and war crimes, and conventions on diplomatic relations and crimes against humanity.

The Court is unique in its introduction of civil parties (or victims) into the proceedings. Instead of the Common Law system, in which a civil suit and criminal trial are severed, in this Court, the two trials are merged. These groups act both as witnesses and parties who are able to demand reparations. Civil Parties go through a long and demanding series of applications before being admitted to the Court. In the process, they are questioned and cross-examined, and must be able to substantiate their claims as victims of any of the crimes covered by the ECCC’s mandate. By introducing Civil Parties into the proceedings of the Court, the legal proceedings are able to provide a platform for reconciliation.

In its short history, the Court has only begun prosecuting two cases, though two others are currently under investigation. In 2007, it charged Kaing Guek Eav (alias “Duch”) with murder, crimes against humanity, and torture in connection to his role as the mastermind of Tuol Sleng prison. At least 15,000 people were tortured and murdered there, and only an estimated ten people survived. He was found guilty on all counts in 2010. His case is now in appeals. Case 002 has five defendants and began in June with opening statements. The Court charged Former Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ieng Sary, former Minister of Social Affairs Leng Thirith, the ideologue of Democratic Campuchea Nuon Chea, and former Head of State Khieu Samphan each individually for a slew of crimes including genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity.

The future of the Court is uncertain. The Co-Investigating Judges have decided that they have enough evidence to close the still confidential Case 003–though that does not mean that they will indict or dismiss the still unnamed suspects. Cases 003 and 004, for which there is no public information, have encountered political resistance, and perhaps will not move forward. The Court is only made possible through Cambodian and international cooperation. The Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen makes this kind of collaboration very difficult given his position politically and historically. A former Khmer Rouge Cadre himself, Hun Sen has been a Cambodian Prime Minister since the first free, U.N. backed elections in 1993. Sen has applied his political pressure to the Court. Though he states that he is in favor of the existence of the ECCC, Hun Sen has stated that Cases 001 and 002 are enough for Cambodia and Cambodians. Moreover, Hun Sen has stated that Cases 003 and 004 overstep the mandate in the original agreement between the government of Cambodia and the U.N. Several of our friends and colleagues here believe that Hun Sen’s resistance to further Cases stems from an understanding that he may be one of “those most responsible.”

The Court has also had a series of leaks, in which a number of confidential court documents have been given to the press. As a result, the press has been censured, and told by the ECCC that if continues to publish and/or engage with such documents, journalists and papers may be subject to legal intervention. The press has been running articles daily about the governmental involvement and corruption in the ECCC, and its purposeful negligence in finding evidence for Case 003. A number of international Court officials have resigned in order to signal protest over such interference.

We have made it a point in our interviews to ask what survivors of the Khmer Rouge genocide what they think about the trials. In general, they respond positively at first, but then are angry or confused as to why the Court has been so ineffective and mired by such political pressure. Concepts like Justice, Reconciliation, and Forgiveness are frustratingly compromised by the realities and limitations of the Court. However, not a single interviewee has been surprised by this. The Cambodians I’ve spoken with perceive this to be normal after thirty years of war and corruption.

Here, I have not gone into detail about women- specific abuses under the Khmer Rouge. As the ECCC continues to unfold, its actions and decicsions will have large consequences for how we are able to prosecute these grave crimes internationally. To me, the large questions of ethics, justice, reconciliation, and human rights are an inalienable part of the feminist project. Therefore, the problems and outcomes experienced in the ECC warrent our consideration and continued attention.

Hannah Zeavin in a senior in Yale College. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Broad Recognition.

Between the Past and the Present in Cambodia

Hannah Zeavin — Sun, 26 Jun 2011 19:20:43 +0000

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

By HANNAH ZEAVIN

June 26, 2011

I am spending this summer in Cambodia working with Khmer Legacies and Youth for Peace to take video testimony of genocide survivors near Phnom Penh. Cambodians suffered a horrific genocide perpetrated by the Khmer Rouge, a communist political party, from 1975-1979. Cambodia has a deeply complicated history–it was often occupied by Thailand and Vietnam, until it was colonized in the mid-19th Century as part of French Indochina. Though Cambodia became independent in 1953, The Vietnamese-American War extended into eastern Cambodia when the country was bombed during Nixon’s war in Cambodia. Following the Vietnam-American war, the United States backed a coup d’etat led by Lon Nol against King Sihanouk. After Lon Nol took power, the Khmer Rouge began a war campaign to remove the pro-American Lon Nol from power.

That campaign ended successfully on April 17, 1975 when the Khmer Rouge surrounded and occupied the capital city of Phnom Penh. When the Khmer Rouge cadres entered the city, people initially thought the war was over, until the Khmer Rouge demanded that all of the cities inhabitants leave for the countryside within a few day time period. One of the stated reasons was that the United States was prepping to bomb the city. Cambodia became a genocidal state as the Khmer Rouge closed Cambodia off to the world and killed roughly two million people–one quarter of all Cambodians. The Khmer Rouge targeted the Vietnamese, Chinese, and Cham populations, as well as all former government officials and soldiers, and those perceived as intellectuals or as foreign agents. As the genocide progressed, the Khmer Rouge began to purge within its ranks, torturing and killing many of its own officials and soldiers. Following a Vietnamese invasion in 1979, which put an end to the genocide, a civil war erupted. That war only ended in 1991 when Cambodia signed the Paris Peace Accords. The nation has held three elections since then, beginning with a United Nation’s sponsored democratic election in 1993–Cambodia’s first. Hun Sen has been prime minister for 25 years–the longest ruling official in South East Asia. The last Khmer Rouge cadres defected to the Cambodian Government in 1998 and while some had died, several are awaiting trial in Cambodia.

My focus here will be taking the testimony of genocide survivors and documenting the history of a specific site in Cambodia. In doing so, I will be talking to both men and women. I expect that each experience will be individual–but I wonder if different events or themes will recur for persons of different genders. I am here with Carol Te, who interviewed Socheata Poeuv of Khmer Legacies for Broad Recognition. They discussed the lineage of women who have taken the lead on genocide reconciliation projects. I am curious about what the gender dynamics will be in working with organizations that are combating the near-universal trauma from the genocide (and subsequent war).

The Khmer Rouge successfully isolated the Cambodian nation after taking Phnom Penh in April 1975. Tourists caught passing through Cambodian waters were arrested and murdered in Security Centers. Few journalists were allowed in, including Malcolm Cadwell, who was murdered during his visit. Decades of Civil War made Cambodia unattractive to tourists. Yet, after 1993 the tourism industry exploded. In 1993, 118,183 tourists came to Cambodia. The industry continued to expand as travel agencies began to receive licenses and as the country stabilized. In 2009, 2,161,557 tourists arrived. While some come for Ankor Wat, Karen Coates, author of Cambodia Now, states that one fourth of these travelers are here for sex tourism. The rise of HIV infections in Cambodia is associated with the arrival of sex tourism. Roughly 15% of sex workers are HIV positive, and UNICEF reports that there are currently an estimated 33,000 children in the sex trade here.

Others still come for dark tourism or to go to sites associated with the genocide such as the Killing Fields or The Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum. While Dark Tourism is not unique to Cambodia, the government has been incredibly pro-active in securing sites for this purpose. It has even debated turning the last strong-hold of the Khmer Rouge into a theme-park.

I will need to spend more time researching women’s issues specifically as my time goes on here. Issues of tourism, NGO’s, and the politics performed therein are especially interesting to me. This week, Cambodia and the international media will turn their focus to this week’s war crime tribunal in the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia as case 002 begins. With the E.C.C.C. trying four top leaders of the Khmer Rouge, the past and its reconciliation promises to have my full attention.

Hannah Zeavin is a senior in Yale College. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Broad Recognition.

The Yale Daily News Reports that the University Is Found in Violation of Clery Act

Hannah Zeavin — Sat, 28 May 2011 14:39:08 +0000

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

by HANNAH ZEAVIN

May 28, 2011

As reported by the Yale Daily News, on May 23rd, 2011 the Department of Education wrote to President Levin that it had found Yale in violation of the Cleary Act. This finding brings to a close a seven-year investigation into Yale’s method of reporting campus crime statistics for the 2001-2006 academic years.

The federal Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act, signed into law in1990, stipulates that all bodies of higher education that receive federal funding for their campus’ financial aid programs must log, report, and publish their campus crime statistics. The Act is named for Jeanne Clery, who was 19-years-old when she was raped and murdered by a fellow student at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania. Clery’s parents, Howard and Connie Clery, learned of 38 violent crimes that had occurred on Lehigh’s campus in the three years leading up to the violent murder of their daughter. These crimes had not been reported to students and their families.

The Act stipulates that in order to be in full compliance with the letter or the Act, bodies of higher education must:

1. Annually report its campus crime statistics by the first of October each year to employees and both prospective and current students. This report must include all crimes from the past three years, policies of safety and security, crime prevention, and specifically policies followed in the investigation of sex crimes.

2. Institutions must continually update a log of all crimes reported to them or those of which they have had notice in the preceding seven years. Such a log must be publicly available and include the date and time of each crime and the type of crime.

3. In the event that a crime covered by the Act—including homicide, sexual assault, robbery, assault, or arson—is understood to be a threat to the safety of employees or students at an institution, it is that institutions duty to provide timely warnings of such a crime. Institutions must notify employees and students if the incident has been deemed a hate crime.

The Department of Education, charged with monitoring compliance with the Act, can impose civil penalties for each infraction. Each infraction can cost a university over $20,000 in aid, and the Department of Education can revoke an institutions ability to participate in federal financial aid programs. Ms. Magazine reports that since 1998, institutions found out of compliance have faced a $25,000 penalty per infraction.

The Department of Education has found Yale University—including but not limited to the undergraduate college–out of compliance with all three of the above-stated criteria. As the Yale Daily News reports, the University has been charged with numerous infractions resulting and inaccurate and insufficient disclosure of crime statistics. These include defining the campus boundaries incorrectly, thus misclassifying some events as “off-campus” and therefore eligible for exclusion from reports.

These specific violations come from 2001-2002 academic year. Case Director Nancy Gifford wrote that these problems have been largely corrected since the Department of Education investigation began in 2004. This investigation into the University’s practices regarding the Clery Act is now closed, pending penalties for these numerous infractions. The maximum penalty would be withdrawing Yale University from federal financial aid programs. The Department of Education’s report is available in full here.

Hannah Zeavin is a senior in Yale College. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Broad Recognition.

A Tolerant Amsterdam?

Hannah Zeavin — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 17:50:54 +0000

Photo: Prostitution Information Center

By HANNAH ZEAVIN

April 28, 2011

Having never been to the Netherlands before my study abroad experience, all I knew upon arrival about the prevailing attitudes towards women relied on a historical and stereotypical, rather than experiential, knowledge. I am aware of the Dutch colonial past–though mostly through my second grade education mandated by the City of New York. As I recall, not only is my hometown a former Dutch colony (New Amsterdam), but it became a colony through the notoriously subversive “purchase” of the island of Manhatta from the Manahatta band of Lenape for some minimal amount of goods. The Dutch have also held colonies for longer periods (their stay in New York was only forty years long) and more recently. The Dutch Empire was virtually everywhere–in South Africa and Ghana, in the Gold Coast and in Australia, in Indonesia and in Brazil. While the Dutch migrated away from their home, they were able to preserve a homogeneous state. The Dutch continue to hold colonies at present in the Caribbean.

I believed that the Dutch ideal of tolerance has very much to do with the Dutch being exemplary capitalists. In order to extend their empire so far away from their homeland, the Dutch worked with, lived with, and exploited diverse peoples. Therefore, the Dutch were able to diversify their goods and their holdings around the world. The mechanisms by which control was enforced in different empires vary: the Dutch were not obsessed, as the English were, with converting “the natives” to their “lifestyle” and religion. Where the English impose their cultural norms, and The United States furthers global capitalism, the Dutch portended to be solely interested in a one-way exchange of extraction and goods.

A politics of tolerance is incredibly precarious, and not the same as the politics of true multiculturalism. The Dutch colonial history has been resurfacing in the last 50 or so years. Citizens of former colonies have come to work and live in the Netherlands under various immigration laws and restrictions. This first wave of reversed migration was followed by guest workers from North Africa and the Middle East, brought in to rebuild the Netherlands after World War II. Confronted with the colonized body in a post-colonial moment, Dutch partisan politics reflect popular attitudes shifting away from the ideal tolerance; the Dutch government has experienced a radically conservative turn; the conservative party’s huge gains are commonly attributed to their firm, anti-immigration platform, and their sometimes subtle islamaphobia.

After having studied in the Netherlands, I have learned that the transition from a tolerant society to a socially conservative society had little to do with the end of the colonial age. Instead, the transition is explicitly connected to Europe’s status as an immigration continent. The continent has seen a large wave of Muslim immigrants from all over Africa and the Middle East in later half of the 20th century. This change in immigration patterns, coupled with an renewed Western acceptance for islamaphobia after the 9-11 terrorist attacks, Hirsi Ali’s rise to the conservative political scene, and the political assassinations of Pim Fortuyn and Theo van Gogh, have allowed for the rise of a polarized partisan political scene. This new conservative Netherlands is seemingly a far cry from its former “tolerant” self. The physical assaults on Muslim communities and individuals have steadily increased since 2001. In 2002, the Labor Party was ousted from its majority for the first time since World War II. They have not yet regained their political power.

However, there are referents to the reverse migration patterns connected to the post-colonial moment in The Netherlands. The Netherlands, and its questionable nationalistic ideal of tolerance, has long been associated with its sex work policy. Though the generally progressive sex work policy has, too, come under attack since the conservative gains in government, sex work is still legal and highly visible. The stratification and segregation of the windows in Amsterdam’s Red Light District is one such historical referent. A series of windows will be rented only to transsexual and transgendered sex workers, the next series only to women from central and south America, the next cluster is rented to women who look distinctly eastern European, the next, to women who are referred to as “Barbies”. In the Netherlands, these windows are not the only legal platform for sex work–sex clubs, and the pseudo-legal brothels are options too.

Our group visited with Mariska Majoor, a former sex worker and founder of The Prostitution Information Center in Amsterdam. Majoor spoke openly and defiantly about wage differences between women of different ethnic backgrounds in the Red Light District. Profitable window locations are predominantly leased to white Europeans, as per the segregation described above. Majoor also stated that it is social convention that each “tier” of sex work is to by occupied by different “kinds” of women. Women who work in the infamous windows of the Red Light District have the most autonomy over their working schedule and conditions. Barring working for a high-end escorting agency, this is where sex workers can make the most money. However, social convention prescribes that it is “beneath” a white Dutch woman to work in those windows.

Sex work is inherently about transaction: services tendered and services sold. Profits are, too, based on demand. However, the windows of non-white women are equally sought after–yet clients of sex workers think they should not have to pay the same amount for those services if a woman of color tenders them. Therefore, differences in wages based on ethnicity are not “simply” a function of economics, nor are they inherently part of sex work. Instead, they are an excellent indication of racism.

Of course sex work is also about sex. The economic demand for certain bodies works as niche, much like in any other capitalist transaction. Selling otherness is fetish. Marketing, or the segregation of the windows, is tied to this idea of niche and exoticism. In this context, the importance is being tied to race/ethnic distinction. They are not equalizing where the homogeneous mainstream culture is almost entirely white. This fetishistic approach to “othered” bodies is not just inherently problematic, it is intrinsically tied to problematic ideas of race and xenophobia in the society.

Hannah Zeavin is a junior at Yale College. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Broad Recognition.

Biden, Duncan Address Sexual Violence in Nation's Schools

Hannah Zeavin — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 01:43:34 +0000

Photo: whitehouse.gov

By HANNAH ZEAVIN

April 4, 2011

Today, Vice President Joseph Biden in conjunction with Secretary of Education Arne Duncan of the Department of Education announced new guidelines to help educators—from elementary schools to universities—address sexual violence. Biden, who has been deeply involved with government initiatives to stop violence against women for the last twenty years, announced these directives from the University of New Hampshire. Biden spoke out on behalf of women who have experienced sexual violence while studying at universities. He focused on both administrative failure to take these crimes seriously and public attitudes towards women and their agency. Biden believes that while attitudes are important, they can also change, which is why these directives are of the utmost import. Biden cited the research he began doing in the early 1990’s before the Violence Against Women Act (1994) was passed into legislature. He spoke to a group of young students about consensual sex. He asked a group of boys if they thought that when a man buys dinner for a woman that that man is automatically allowed to have sex with his dinner date. 25% of boys said yes. When a group of girls of about the same age were asked the same question, 70% of them also thought that this was true.

Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights Russlynn Ali dovetailed with this sentiment, and urged schools to understand that they must address their failures. “Schools are often in the best position to prevent sexual violence and to respond to it promptly and effectively if it occurs. [The Office for Civil Rights] is already working with schools to help them in their fight against the harmful effects of sexual violence by providing technical assistance and seeking remedies designed to stop such conduct, prevent its recurrence, and remediate its impact.”

The directives aim to end the cycle of sexual violence on campuses by demonstrating the federal government’s awareness of such crimes. Vice President Biden along with Duncan and Ali chose to make their announcement from the University of New Hampshire due to that university’s energetic and good faith implementation of its progressive regulations regarding instances of sexual violence.

To hit home how sexual violence impacts our community, in 2011, one-in-five women on college campuses across the United States will be the victims of sexual violence. That means that if there are 646 women graduating from Yale this year (as they did in 2010), approximately 130 of them will have experienced sexual violence.

These new guidelines urge universities like Yale to go above and beyond compliance with Title IX, and to see to it that their students are protected.

The guidelines, as well as two fact sheets, are available through the White House.

Hannah Zeavin is a junior in Yale College. She is the Managing Editor of Broad Recognition.

The Nonsense of Christopher Yuan: the Christian Minister Speaks at Yale about God, Gays, and Holiness

Hannah Zeavin — Sat, 02 Apr 2011 16:50:21 +0000

By HANNAH ZEAVIN

April 2, 2011

Yuan's homepage / Photo: christopheryuan.blogspot.com

Christopher Yuan visited Yale’s campus yesterday evening, and spoke for just over one hour at the Afro-American Cultural Center (Af-Am House) to an audience of students including self-identified LGBTQ allies and members of the Christian community. Yuan, invited by the Yale Christian Fellowship and Yale Students for Christ is best known for testifying to the power he feels God has to transform one’s life.

He spoke to a packed room (see video below), aided by a slideshow of photographs and Biblical scripture, or what he called the “breath of God.” Yuan’s argument was this: he wanted to talk about love, specifically the unconditional love between himself and Christ. He told the room how he came to that love: Yuan was a gay student who was kicked out of dentistry school for dealing drugs. He then moved to Atlanta where he was later arrested for possessing “9.1 tons” of marijuana. Following Yuan’s arrest and while serving his six-year sentence in prison, Yuan discovered his HIV positive status. This story is widely identifiable as a quintessential, urban, queer coming-of-age story during the era of the HIV/AIDS outbreak. What follows is the stuff of redemption narrative. Yuan found God. He got out of jail. He went to Bible College. He graduated. Now he’s a minister and professor. He’s left sin behind.

Yuan told students that he wants to be holy because God tells him to be: “God did not say be heterosexual for I am heterosexual—He said be Holy, for I am Holy.” For Yuan, then, being holy means following God and leaving behind his “feelings” of homosexuality.

Yuan’s logic surrounding this personal aspect of coming to God was deeply flawed, and disturbed me (a queer, atheistic, Jewish woman). Yuan asserts that we should all love and respect one other, arguing there is nothing evil about being gay. Rather, for him, “the problem is the sex.” From Yuan’s point of view, gay people can love, but he would prefer them to not form kinship structures as it “closes” them off. He does not feel the same way about heterosexual marriage, and also validates “singleness.”

Though Yuan does not like labels, stereotypes, or generalizations, and stated, “I am Christopher Yuan, I am unique,” he applied labels to everyone else. He told the audience he “has Gay friends” however, this line was most oft used before deploying a homophobic comment, for instance, that he would “prefer” for trans men and women “not to get the surgery.”

Finally, Yuan concluded by taking questions that were cherry-picked by two assisting Yale students. None of the questions directly asked Yuan about his current idea of his sexuality or why he has made his career out of publicly testifying his need to free himself of his “old” sexuality. His politics were not addressed head on, instead students discussed his message and its affects.

Yuan himself asked for respect and an open dialogue between the two clearly identified groups of students in the audience. Marina Keegan ’12 stood up and noted that were Yuan to actually believe in said free discourse, he would have allowed audience members to ask questions as they pleased instead of having comments “vetted.” Students applauded the decision to open the floor. However, Yuan’s mother intervened, preventing the decision from being made due to concerns about her son’s health as someone living with HIV.

So what is going on here? We have a man who refuses to identify with the ex-gay movement speaking to a large number or LGBTQ and allied students. These students (aside from Keegan’s concern) did not interrupt him; they listened to him deliver his message. He was invited and sponsored by Yale organizations that must have felt this man deserved a Yale student audience (and, in turn, was wanted by Yale students). Yuan did not provide concrete answers about sexuality and religion—but instead stated that queer sex was not holy (I know that at least Allen Ginsberg would beg to differ.) Though attendees saw photographs of Yuan as a baby, as a student, in gay clubs, in a mug shot, and heard him testify to the love of God and his own personal redemption, I am left with many more questions than I entered with. I was not wondering about sexuality and God, but instead all the sanctioning of this event by Yale Christian Fellowship and Yale Students for Christ. It is even more unbelievable that this talk was delivered on the first day of Yale’s Pride Month—Yuan wants us all to swallow ours.

Hannah Zeavin is a junior in Yale College. She is the managing editor of Broad Recognition.

Wishful Thinking in Berlin

Hannah Zeavin — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 01:25:44 +0000

Photo: Graffiti on the East Side Gallery of the Berlin Wall, Wikimedia Commons

By HANNAH ZEAVIN

March 13, 2011

Before studying abroad, I lived in Berlin for four months in 2009. Therefore my experiential knowledge of the city was cemented before I went this past year. When I lived in Berlin, my apartment and all of my friends’ apartments were in Neukölln. This meant living in a predominantly Arabic and Turkish district. I casually interacted almost exclusively with people of Arabic or Turkish origins.

One thing I love about Berlin is the urgency that I feel there because of the barrage of physical reminders of its history. Walking around, one can still see where the city was divided, each neighborhood laden with historical referents. The polarity that exists between East and West Berlin can still be felt aesthetically, architecturally, and in communities. One can sense the difficulties faced in having a former socialist country subsumed by a capitalist one overnight. (Imagine Poland, or Hungary, or the Czech Republic suddenly uniﬁed with France, or England, or Switzerland.) At any given time there are several symbols reminding one of where they stand in reference to a now phantasmagoric wall. Interestingly enough, the wall itself is not one of these symbols. This is due to the unspoken German maxim: weʼve dealt with that already. The Germans use monuments like band-aids to prove that they are “over” racism, they are “over” socialism. It is also important to remember that Berlin is not representative of Germany.

In general, I did not spend a great deal of time thinking about or observing women’s prescribed place/roles in German society or their attempts, if any, to combat their situation. I was completely blindsided by my experience as a Jew. I was verbally assaulted three times, twice on public transport and once on the street. These assaults were “racially” motivated. Working and living in Berlin, I was not only thinking about that aspect of my identity, but I was not allowed to forget it.

As a queer woman traveling all around the city, I felt that in general Germans rarely stare or make any gesture towards white queers that would translate to me as intolerant. I also was living with a Black queer woman. Her experience was entirely different: she did get stared at, but felt that the attention was racially motivated, and not due to her gender presentation.

I know much more about LGBTQI issues in Berlin than those of German women as a standpoint group. Before returning with my study abroad group, I did know that divorce is common and not hindered by social or state pressures. I had seen sex workers with varying clientele, and was aware of the legislation that decriminalizes that industry. I also heard how this legalization can adversely effect sex workers, but directly beneﬁt the clientele.

This second time around in Berlin, my own independent research and our lectures at the Humboldt University complicated my understanding of women’s issues in Germany. I was introduced to the European Unionʼs politics surrounding women here largely in thanks to Karen Heisiker who formally worked for that government body. I now know more about the current debate surrounding trafficking and sex work and how the discourse of bygone decades (and the sex wars) continue to frame these discussions.

I noticed in Germany a wishful, Utopian vision of the city. Our group met with Dr. Laura Merrit, a sex worker who also mentors other sex workers. She told us a fantastic tale of what it means to be a sex worker in Berlin. Her rhetoric was based on “our drive” to become sex workers. She began her hypothetical tour of Berlinʼs sex industry with sentences like, “If you wanted to be a sex worker, you could just work right here, outside of my apartment!” or “If you were a sex worker, you would have codes and signs so that you would stay safe.” She offered to show the group the best sex positions for working in a car, and advised against scarves and jewelry. I found this visit a little disturbing in that Dr. Merrit would not mention, of her own volition, the implications of a segregated work environment (a reality in German sex work) or of sex work for trafﬁcked women. Only when she was pushed did she mention these issues before quickly returning to her Utopian rhetoric.

This talk was nicely contrasted with our talk with Nina Prasad at Ban Ying. It was clear, almost instantly, that she and her organization were listening not only to the trafficked women they aid, but also to German sex workers concerned about the way trafﬁcking is associated with their profession. Ban Ying has been trying to find ways to thwart the systems in place that allow trafﬁcking into Germany, and to help women pulled into such circumstances find their way to safety and residency. Prasad was able to keep the reality of trafficking in view while simultaneously accommodating sex workers’ need to be distinguished as women who have agency working in the sex industry. Sex workers want to be understood as separate from those who are deceived or coerced into the sex industry—and Ban Ying works to make sure that this is possible.

Since going to Berlin this second time, I have also noticed a frightening trend. Germany, including Berlin, is getting more politically conservative and openly racist. Anti-Muslim sentiment has reached an all-time high. One can feel it and hear it even in the highest intellectual echelons of society. While I have learned a lot about the situations of different women in Berlin, I ﬁnd that my sense of Berlin in this realm is similar to what it was before. While this article is supposed to speak directly to the concerns of women and LGBTQAI people, this frightening and damaging pattern of racism dominated and colored my perception of Berlin on that visit.

I also ﬁnd that this is where my cross-cultural analysis keeps going: Europe is getting more divided and conservative. In Krakow and in Prague we heard the same understanding of the current political atmosphere. While Germany is still the only one of these three governments, all members of the EU, with leftist politicians still in power, I find it to be practically the most right wing. I must situate myself, and say that this might be because I have spent a significant amount of time talking with young Germans of Turkish origin about what they have been experiencing. I DJed two gigs to fundraise for various causes pertaining to this new turn in Germany (one event was for a young man who had been sued for slandering a former government official in his blog). I also may be very aware of this because I have heard several racist comments aimed at Muslims in Europe in general from several of my interview subjects (designers of memorials and museums). Finally, I also have seen a few fights erupt between a group of Turkish youth and German (skin-head) youth on the U-Bahn.

Hannah Zeavin is a junior in Yale College. She is the managing editor of Broad Recognition.

The Church, The State, and The Body in Poland

Hannah Zeavin — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:41:27 +0000

By HANNAH ZEAVIN

Photo: Wikimedia Commons

February 22, 2011

For my study abroad program, we had to write “Situated Feminist” papers, in which we mused about the culture that we would find in our next location before arriving. Because of these papers, I have a pretty good record of where my head was at before arriving in Krakow, Poland. I knew very little about the Polish women’s experience and/or feminist movement. Though I was sure to be disabused of my assumptions, I made them in the context of one of these assignments. I imagined that Poland’s geopolitical history would play a great role in how gender roles were defined. Twentieth century Poland is that of a historical palimpsest (fascism, communism, nationalism)– and each of these regimes redefined its relationship to The Body and, in particular, the female body. Poland, as a country that has often been occupied, finds its own “essence” in Catholicism. The Catholic Church was under attack under both the fascist and communist regimes, given their policies. The Church metamorphosed into the site of much of the organization for the Solidarity Movement, the resistance group that allowed the communist rule to be overthrown at the end of the last century. Because of its historic importance, both as faith and as community, Catholicism was built into the new fledgling democracy in the 1990′s.

Using what I knew about the policies of the Catholic Church, I assumed that if the Church was part of the government, it would create pressure against certain “lifestyle choices,” like birth control, queerness, and persons practicing alternative religions. I assumed that these persons would face trouble in the public and private spheres. I also thought that their might be access barriers to the above mentioned medical services. The Church often informs family function and the private sphere. In the public and private sphere, I expected to see hereto-normative binaries that would define the mainstream national discourse.

After having done some research on Poland and Polish feminism, I found that my ideas surrounding the Church and its structural influence were supported. Not only is the Church an emblem of the nationalist integrity of Poland and the arbiter of normativity, but it also exerts influence over the matters of State. The most recent rewriting of the Catechism occurred three years before that of the Polish Constitution. Elements of that Catechism were adopted into the Polish constitution without much modification. This reinforces the link between the Church and the Polish: where the Constitution guarantees certain kinds of equality, other articles of the Constitution undermine the rights of women, of homosexual partnerships, or more generally whoever occupies the category of Other.

Women are relegated (in the Constitution and by the Church) to the designation of second sex and second class. Women have worse access to specialized care, are paid less, and are abused more than their male counterparts in Polish society, and are underrepresented in all professional sectors (except teaching primary education, where they are over represented). Women’s poor access to health care is particularly heart wrenching as, by law, it seems almost impossible to obtain a legal abortion for economic or personal reasons alone. This creates huge problems for women seeking abortions, but also for women who have other health issues–including miscarriage, who are barred from receiving the immediate care that they need.

A woman, then, must have been raped, or had a crime committed against her that resulted in her pregnancy, or have her life or fetus at risk. Compliance with this parameter alone does not secure a woman access to safe, legal abortion: two doctors (one medical and one psychological) must “permit” her–within a narrow time window– to have an abortion. These restrictions have led Poland to have a huge network of underground abortion service providers.

I learned that there have been huge repercussions for homosexuals in Poland through this structure of Constitution as political catechism. Excerpts of the catechism literally appear as Polish law, (i.e. Polish policies regarding abortion fall into line with the sentiments of the Church.) In the public narrative, the only homosexuals are male–and often represented by public, sometimes fictional, figures, from the media. This leads to a feedback loop–the society is incredibly homophobic, thus gay men do not “come out” which reinforces the hateful stereotype.In the study referred to in “The Rest is Silence” by Joanna Mizielinska, 42% of Polish homosexuals experienced one to three attack during one year (2005-2006). This statistic is an indicator that this is not just a “noise” of hatred, or a reminiscence of an era of hatred, but actual violent hatred in the present.

Queer women often stay “in the closet” so as to retain their womanhood in the eyes of the Church, State, and family. Written in the Polish Constitution, a woman is a mother “both before and after” she has given birth. The Polish Mother is a national trope or emblem of the nation. Because homosexuals (male or female) cannot legally adopt children, and as it is hard to obtain access to in vitro fertilization, queer women practically cannot “fulfill” (either actually or symbolically) this Catholic/Polish ideal of women as mother to the nation, and mother to Polish sons. One could read this as a statement from the Constitution that one can be a mother without a child, but the reality of social pressures must inform the interpretation of the intent and power of the law. Queer women then have three choices: to elect to “come out” and face the prescribed consequences (alienation from family, discrimination at work, loss of rights), to “come out” only to a few friends, or to stay in and marry a man, and try to live up to the expectation of women in the culture.

After some time in Poland I felt better equipped to interpret the effects of the nation’s geopolitical history on women. Michał Biskupski, one of our guest lecturers, made clear that Poland is a nation that has not often had autonomy and therefore has not even had control of its borders, let alone its own conception of nationhood. Biskupski demonstrated that the partitioning of Poland in the late 1700’s led to a division not only of land, but of people. Suddenly the Polish population was absorbed into three different empires and their identities: Russian, Prussian, and Austro-Hungarian. Poland was reborn after World War I in 1918, only to be invaded again by the fascist German nation in World War II, and at the close of this war, Poland was then re-occupied by the Soviet Union. It was not until 1989 that Poland fought for and won its autonomy.

One can imagine that with this history, the current Polish state heavily focused on nationhood–strengthening it at all costs. This is certainly what I have found. The nation’s fantastical (and fanatical) idea of family function is deeply rooted in the idea of nation as war state: the woman must strengthen the family while the man must protect the state.

I found it shocking how deeply The Church extended into the lives of citizens, much like it does in the United States. For instance, family function in Poland is controlled by the State, and is deemed a private, sacred matter. Therefore, statistically, police, through interpretation of the law masquerading as custom, “cannot” (do not) interfere in cases of domestic violence, women are blocked from receiving abortions for economic and personal reasons, and homophobia is rampant. These three separate issues–domestic violence, abortion, and homosexuality–all go against the Polish ideal of family and motherhood. This nationalistic dogma is kept alive in the State, Church, and national identity. The reality for women in Poland seems to be that they are reconciled to the position of being inscribed in the caring, domestic, private sphere. Where they do work, women are underrepresented in all spheres of employment except for those relating to care or stereotypically feminine work (teaching, care industries, textile work.) The stronghold that the Church has on the State, compounded with this historically understandable national ideal of the family, prescribes the daily reality of Polish women and TLGBI people.

However, the future did not seem bleak for feminist/queer politics. I met with a number of amazing organizations and thinkers trying to combat this problem. While Europe governments are turning towards more conservative parties, activist/intellectuals in both Krakow and Warsaw do not shy away from counter-acting these forces on behalf of the people. The Federation for Family Planning, Transfuzija, F. K., Zadra (Poland’s premiere feminist magazine), Queer Mai, and other organizations that we met with have a visible impact and are well connected to one another. Compared to organizations in the United States, it seems that Polish activist/outrider groups must connect more directly to their communities, whereas in the United States non-governmental organizations provide services in congruence with the State. These services include help hotlines, shelters for survivors of domestic violence, libraries, activist spaces, progress reports, legal assistance. The networks of activists that I visited in Poland are up against institutionalized religion and national identity–which when understood in the context of Polish geopolitical history, becomes all the more clear.

Hannah Zeavin is a junior in Yale College. She is the managing editor of Broad Recognition.