In China, the LGBTQ+ community face severe discrimination. Many LGBTQ+ people's families and communities refuse to accept their sexuality or gender identity, and therefore find themselves in compromising situations like 'fake' marriages to fulfil their filial duty. Homosexuality was considered a mental disorder until 2001, and some private Chinese clinics still offer 'electroshock' gay conversion therapy. [...]
Tag: Identity
Python
Two children watch a python and owner in the street during a Buddhist festival, near Botahtaung Pagoda, Yangon, Burma | January 2017 © ZhendeGender
Pyone Thet Thet Kyaw on Developing her own Fashion Brand in Burma (Interview: part 2)
Pyone Thet Thet Kyaw can be found at the British Embassy, working for the Department for International Development (DFID) in Yangon from 9-5, and leading her own dressmaking start-up, Virya Couture, on 39th Street every evening, juggling two completely different careers but pursuing one dream. Pyone spans sectors while securing rights for her fellow women [...]
Protesting on International Women’s Day? History is on Your Side
International Women's Day began as a day of women's protest in Europe and the United States. Celebrating this socialist holiday largely died out in the US, while communists in China have been commemorating Women's Day annually since 1922. The tables have turned this year. Women in the US are striking today, while working women in China are enjoying a half-day off work.
Emma Watson’s Vanity Fair Photo is Exactly What Feminists are Fighting For
British actor and pioneer of the UN’s HeForShe campaign, Emma Watson has faced criticism for the publication of a photo in which her breasts are partially exposed. The image is one of a series taken by acclaimed fashion photographer Tim Walker, with styling by Jessica Diehl. It accompanied Watson’s recent cover story interview for Vanity [...]
Suffrage
We have to free half of the human race, the women, so that they can help to free the other half. Emmeline Pankhurst I shall never while I live forget the suffering I experienced during the days when those cries were ringing in my ears. Emmeline Pankhurst Read on '1908-1917 Imprisoned suffragettes', mashable
Sorry, I am not a dog
Yesterday I was locking up my bike when a policeman barked at me. He was fifty metres away. He started walking towards me, and yelled again. No words, just sounds. Then he whistled. A high piercing tone designed to scare me off. He clapped his hands three times, loudly, and shouted again, a sound equivalent [...]
Identity, Breast Implants, and Wanting More from Life: Lijia Zhang on her Debut Novel Lotus (interview: part I)
Inspired by her grandmother’s deathbed confession of being sold to a brothel, Lijia Zhang injects her cutting social criticism into her first novel, Lotus. The book delves deep into the sex industry in contemporary Shenzhen, following a young migrant woman, Lotus, who is eager to escape her life as a prostitute. A strong believer in [...]
Words and Women: Adrienne Rich
The connections between and among women are the most feared, the most problematic, and the most potentially transforming force on the planet. Adrienne Rich was an American poet, essayist and radical feminist. She was credited with bringing "the oppression of women and lesbians to the forefront of poetic discourse" (Flood). Responsibility to yourself means refusing to [...]
Pyone Thet Thet Kyaw on Leading the Ethical Fashion Trend in Burma (Interview: Part 1)
Pyone Thet Thet Kyaw is a Rakhine Burmese woman who works for the UK’s Department for International Development (DFID) in Yangon, and runs her own dressmaking start-up in her spare time. As the founder and head designer at Virya Couture, she teaches vocational skills to underprivileged women, helping them overcome poverty.
Zhēn de Gender 