Grater Expectations
Issue 5 - Winter 2020 cheesegratermagazine.org
Unf o r e seen
Warning! Hot Contents! Letter from the Editors................................................................3 Twi-hard? More Like Try Harder..................................................4 Lotus, 2007..................................................................................6 How I Met Your Father.................................................................7 Sick of Inequality.........................................................................8 Wait, But What If We Had a Female U.S. President?..................10 Feminist Underpinnings in The Handmaid’s Tale.........................12 12 Days of Feminist Christmas..................................................14 Grater Recommendations...........................................................15 A True Stream of Consciousness.................................................16 Out of the Blues.........................................................................18 Artist Spotlight: Guerrilla Girls..................................................19
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Hello guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, Welcome to the fifth issue of Grater Expectations! We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we enjoyed making it. When we first joined The Cheese Grater as zine editors, we didn’t know what to expect. Straddling three different time zones and two contrasting programs, this wasn’t going to be easy. Or at least we thought. Before we knew it, ideas were flowing. Bonding over zoom calls made us marvel at the unprecedented manner through which we were elected or even stumbled across The Cheese Grater magazine. Soon, the theme ‘Unforeseen’ was realised. Wonderful contributors started pitching in with submissions full of more talent than we probably have in our collective pinky toes. Thank you so unbelievably much for helping us create this issue of Grater Expectations. It would not exist without each and every one of you and your creativity, your time, and your little feminist hearts. We really hope to see you next term! Sincerely yours, Kaitlin & Rusheen
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Twi-hard? More Like Try Harder by Kaitlin Beranek and Emilie Mussbach
Perhaps one of the most unforeseen events of 2020 was the return of the Twilight franchise. Originally published in 2005, Stephanie Meyer’s vampire romance series was an absolute giant of young adult literature throughout the subsequent decade. The Twilight fever raged: were you Team Edward or Team Jacob? Will Bella ever become a vampire? And for god’s sake, why the hell did Bella name her daughter Renesmee? When a draft of Midnight Sun, a book featuring the events of Twilight retold from Edward’s perspective, leaked online in 2008, Stephenie Meyer stopped the publication dead in its tracks, much to the despair of her fans. With its surprising release earlier this year, Twilight is enjoying a renaissance — but not without the usual backlash.
“It’s by now pretty clear that the not-so-secret reason everyone had so much fun mocking Twilight online 10 years ago is that our culture loves to mock stuff made for teenage girls.” (Grady) Yes, numerous aspects of the story are problematic. Yes, co-dependent, emotionally manipulative, and toxic relationships were romanticised, the Quileute tribe was exploited and Jacob’s infatuation with Renesmee had underpinnings of child predation. But so are shows and movie franchises targeted towards boys and men — the Rambo movies presented white supremacy as the norm, the Indiana Jones franchise was inherently racist, and the Transformers movies justified an adult dating a minor with a Romeo and Juliet reference — that experienced little to no backlash despite being problematic in content. Interestingly, these arguments are almost never mentioned when delving into the reasons to detest Twilight. Instead Bella was labelled a ‘bad role model for teenage girls,’ even though Meyer never intended for that, saying “I don’t think you should be using fictional characters as role models”. Why does one franchise get the moral benefit of not needing to provide strong role models while the other laments over who and what constitutes a morally right one? Furthermore, nobody paid much attention to the moral merits of the Twilight series until it began making millions of dollars. The first movie alone made $35.7 million on its opening day. The entire movie franchise? $3.35 billion. Once the things that girls enjoy become profitable, suddenly society decides it needs to find a reason to condemn it. Twilight? It’s toxic. Make-up? You’re shallow. Tiktok dances? They’re slutty.
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When compared with franchises such as Harry Potter and Percy Jackson (both of which came out in roughly the same time period), Twilight is the only one that received mockery at such an intense, vitriolic level. It is also, surely coincidentally, the only one not targeted at boys, or both girls and boys. This does not imply that all the criticism received by Twilight was disingenuous, but years of the “it’s problematic” argument now seem like a lazy excuse to hate a universe that teenage girls enjoy, rather than constructive, sincere criticism. Yet, it seems to be common that this is only used as a weapon of criticism when directed towards media or trends largely enjoyed by young girls and women. Ah yes, the age-old assumption that girls should naturally identify with boys’ lived experiences, perspectives, and stories, but the reverse could never be true.
“The degrading backlash to Twilight was mostly informed by the fact that in order to experience the novel or film, you had to engage with a feminine space.” (Moser) A major portion of the backlash constituted other teenage girls and women, eager to distance themselves from something so unapologetically feminine. When the lived experience of women, including their concerns, obstacles, and viewpoints, are diluted down to the point of mockery, it is easy for society to shrug them off as superficial or stupid. And if they’re superficial and stupid… no one wants to identify with them. And thus the ‘Not Like Other Girls’ girl is born. Is she named Bella? Maybe. Or maybe not. Misogyny doesn’t always come in screaming about how female vampires suck and women are too emotional to lead. It can also creep in, unbeknownst to the poor mortal humans, as socially accepted assumptions and casual reactions to girls’ enjoyment. Not allowing stories that exist in a feminine space to be presented on neutral terms is detrimental to the development of boys’ empathy and girls’ confidence. On a larger scale, girls’ participation in fandom can be seen as an expression of stereotypical feminine attributes:
“They deliberately use excitement and passion as the foundation for community-building and empathetic development.” (Moss) Having more of these attributes be praised instead of (at best) taken for granted or (at worst) ridiculed, would benefit society in obvious ways: caring for the community, seeing the world through others’ eyes, making genuine connections with those around us. Perhaps this should be our new normal.
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Lotus, 2007 By Jenny Chiu
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How I Met Your Father By: Emilie Mussbach
Well, the way I met your father was quite romantic, actually. 5:30 PM. It was a gloomy afternoon and I had had a horrendous day at work. Truly, it could not have gotten any worse: I missed my bus, I had to deal with a rude customer, and to top it all off, the canteen was out of Earl Grey tea. On my way home, with an eagerly awaited cup of Starbucks warming my hands, I passed that little fast food place known for its lousy customer reviews. And there he was, leaning back into his flimsy plastic chair. He was 170cm of scrumptious masculinity, adorned with a face that read “I’m an alpha male”. He had greasy dark hair (how I adore a real man who only showers once a week!), coffee-stained teeth (the perfect way to wake up in the morning!), and a devilishly fashionable pair of grubby camo shorts (taken care of so lovingly!). He lazily scratched near his crotch: a swift movement that made my heart flutter and my cheeks flush crimson. Taunting my faithful thoughts with his bold manspread. He had already planted into my mind a glimpse of our beautiful, healthy future together. After the clock had struck 5 PM and I had been liberated of my commitments at the office, I just yearned for my day to be sweetened by some forced interaction with a stranger. At long last, from the corner of his eye, he finally graced me with a filthy look, up and down the length of my anatomy, setting fire to my loins. A grin had crept onto his perfectly non-judgemental face. A sexy sneer, if you will. He looked like a cultivated, courteous gentleman. Shouting at me: “Oi, hot thing! Smile for me, will you?” That’s when I knew: he was the one. The apple of my eye. The man of my dreams, clicking his tongue before me. It’s so funny how love comes when you least expect it. I never believed in love at first sight until he proved me wrong. I’m sure you’re wondering: “Are you grateful for his attention despite your otherwise thoroughly atrocious day?” To answer your question: Yes! And I didn’t even ask for it!
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Sick of Inequality:
The pandemic highlighted society’s reliance on womenand an opportunity for change By Závecz Ferenc Dániel
A hundred years since the 1920s, progress in terms of gender equality and access to opportunities has never been greater. However, whether Covid-19 is classified as an inconvenience or devastation, its impact cannot be underestimated. Constant danger to one’s health, lonesome isolation periods and an economic crisis comparable to 2008’s financial market crash were just some of the worries endured by the world this year. But the one overlooked the most — the shecession, a term coined by C. Nicole Manson, president and chief executive of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, encapsulating the uneven economic effects on women’s labor participation. To grasp gender inequality, a concept that underscores the contradictory and institutionalized nature of gender relations, we must first examine labour relations. Physical distancing measures most heavily struck sectors that are predominantly staffed by women as well as minorities, such as education and hospitality, and often lie on the lower end of salary distribution. According to the National Women’s Law Centre, of 1.1 million people who lost their jobs between September and August in the US, over 800,000 were women. Due to their comparatively low pay when these jobs are lost, those affected have fewer resources to fall back on. A majority of the healthcare industry is also comprised of women, putting them on the forefront of the health crisis. In many cases, these losses represent a direct reversal of progress made towards equality in recent years. According to a report by LeanIn and McKinsey, taking such a cut during a recession can have long-lasting ramifications on women’s careers and earning potential. Women have also borne the brunt of the increased caring responsibilities, exacerbated by the shut-downs of child care centers and schools. A report by the Institute of Fiscal Studies finds women in traditional opposite-gender households assuming two additional hours of child care and household-related unpaid work compared to men during the pandemic, usually while juggling several other responsibilities. The same report also found that mothers are 1.5 times more likely than fathers to either have lost their job or quit since the start of the pandemic. Women assuming the responsibility for unpaid economic activity is far from a new development, although the pandemic increased that burden. Time to Care, a report published by Oxfam, estimates the global monetary value of unpaid care work, disproportionately performed by women, to be approximately 10.8 trillion USD. This value was calculated by estimating work hours put into these activities and multiplying by the minimum wage, which makes it likely to be an underestimation. Even at an underestimated value, this is a massive contribution to the economy, with positive long-term effects spiralling far beyond the immediate benefits. Yet monetary compensation is rare. Even in the event that the work is paid for, the compensation is not proportional to social benefits.
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Labour Economics has continuously observed a comparatively higher elasticity of women’s labour supply. This means that women’s job status and involvement with work is much more sensitive to economic factors than that of men. Although there are multiple, arbitrary causes for this, there are some that stand out. Firstly, the persistent gender wage gap provides smaller incentives for work for women than it does for men. This can be observed in the current climate itself: the wage disparity presents an unfair set of choices for women, forcing a compromise between personal preference, economic interest and family time. Stefania Albanesi, an Economics professor at the University of Pittsburgh, pointed out to The New York Times that this act of choosing is now the more significant factor in the gendered impact of Covid-19 on unemployment, than the initial blow to shut-down sectors. Choosing between one or the other is not fair any way we spin it. While everyone made difficult and unpleasant compromises due to this massive crisis surrounding us, it seems that certain structural forces push an inordinate amount of this difficulty onto women. By providing uncompensated work that potentially contributes a significant amount to the economy, yet reaping little of the individual benefit, women are trapped in a situation only worsened by the pandemic. While their choices are often personal, they are not made in a value-neutral environment, which is especially worrying as academics suggest that current events might cause longitudinal damage and a step-back in equality. However, it is possible that something good comes of this situation. The pandemic could be a catalyst for change. As many experts pointed out, the flexible work schedules that many companies were forced to adopt could benefit women greatly in the long run. One of the causes of women’s elastic labour supply has been their preference for flexibility that the labour market has been reluctant to provide. Now that it has been proven that work-from-home policies do not negatively impact productivity, the future job market could be a lot more fitting to women seeking employment. Some evidence also proposes that men who are “forced” to engage in childcare once are more likely to do so again. This could lead to a speedier breakdown in social norms that make caretaking the women’s responsibility. Perhaps the most important factor will be policy. If governments stepped up to create an unyielding infrastructure necessary to address issues such as the care crisis or gender pay gap, not only would women be forced to endure less, but the society as a whole would become more resilient by distributing its burdens more equally.
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Wait, But What If We Had a Female U.S. President? Get in loser, we’re maladaptive daydreaming. By Maddy Black
1. We’d Have A First Gentleman Ugh, doesn’t FGOTUS just roll off the tongue. Sure, it sounds like a fatal fungusrelated diagnosis, but if GIRL PWR is a sickness then we don’t want to get better!
2. Things Would Run A LOT More Smoothly If there’s one thing a GirlBoss©™️ can do, it’s get the job done. She’s a multitasker after all! Famously the phrase ‘Get you a girl who can do both’ was inspired by Nasty Gal She-E-O Sophia Amoroso, who published her book ‘#GIRLBOSS’ just one year before her company was accused multiple times of sexist discrimination in the workplace. We’re obsessed!
3. Finally, Some Fashion In The White House! Obama wears one tan suit in 2008 and people act like he reinvented the wheel. Yawn. Ever heard of Kamala Harris’ Timberland boots? All around America, Republicans’ jaws just reached terminal velocity. With a girlypop in the Oval Office, there would be a fashion revolution (please don’t consider this a precedent to structural reform of any kind). If you’re signing a Crime Bill and your hand ISN’T newly manicured?? Well honey… close the door on your way out.
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4. More Women In Politics… And Boy Do We Need It Male politicians are desperately out of touch with the ordinary person. Every time I read the phrase ‘golfing holiday’, I feel like I’m being gaslighted. It’s time for women to break the mould, i.e. bottomless brunch with the girls. Picture POTUS, necking back mimosas on a Saturday morning. She’s having girly chats about how to maximise the cabinet’s joint slay, and which third world country is doing A Little Too Well For Our Liking. Feminist win!
5. She’d Know Exactly Where You Are, What You’re Doing And The Contents Of Your Camera Roll, But In Like, A Sweet Maternal Way? Who wants some creepy FBI agent watching your every move? With Madame President at the helm, she’d see you watching the Harry Styles ‘Golden’ music video for the 7th time today and be like ‘ugh, same queen’.
6. She Might Even Listen To Covid Advice The bar is on the floor at this point. The first female president could be anywhere. Maybe she’s reading an article about ‘How To Find Your Best Zoom Lighting’ and mourning her misspent youth. Maybe she’s randomly being terrorised by the desire to bleach her eyebrows at 3 AM, or slapping £20 mud on her face in the name of self-love. Maybe she’s losing sleep over the marketing logic behind the Pret Subscription scheme - I mean, aren’t we all? Or maybe, just maybe...she’s The Girl reading this.
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Feminist Underpinnings in The Handmaid’s Tale By Disha Takle and Rusheen Bansal
2020 has been a tumultuous year. Everything that could possibly go wrong went wrong. Personally, this year felt like a growing pile of books I never got around to reading, instead just watching the pile grow and eventually topple, feeling as if there is nothing I could do to “fix” this problem. This was also the year that exposed the systemic structural inequalities within our societies and governments, forcing us to reevaluate several instances that were usually ignored as “normal”. A striking example of this is Poland’s recent attempt to ban abortions in cases of foetal defects, which was met with a furious uproar by women all over the world, followed by mass protests and rallies that aimed to remind everyone that a woman’s body is not a commodity that can be legislated. Instances like these trigger anxiety and worry for the future because it is a cumulation of such events that lay the foundation of any classic dystopia. Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale gives us a chance to evaluate these accruing systemic leaks and question if these are laying the foundation of a dystopian future for all of us. The book is largely inspired by George Orwell’s 1984, with Atwood exploring a world where it is almost criminal to be a woman. Set in an environment where rising levels of pollution and toxicity have decreased fertility rates, fearing the human race on the verge of extinction, the government of the USA is overthrown by a right-wing organisation which forms the Republic of Gilead. The theocratic order of Gilead alludes to the Old Testament, where most men take on roles of power and women are forced into submission. The role of a woman is severely dehumanised: they’re reduced to vessels of reproduction, servants, and objects of childrearing. This story is a cautionary tale of the unforeseen circumstances of unchecked political power — a world where the passing of misogynistic laws didn’t gather crowds on streets, a world where no one protested. Of the limited roles women are allowed to assume, there is an apparent segregation: in richer households, Handmaids do the surrogate childbearing (as they are one of the few fertile women left), Wives (infertile) raise the children, and Marthas do the housework; the wives of lower-ranking officers are labelled Econowives, who perform all the functions listed above; aunts are instructors that train handmaids. The Handmaids are denied a personal identity — they are allowed no personal objects, no personal relationships, and no name, as they are referred to as “Of their commander,” (like Of-fred, the protagonist) and assigned an identification number (printed on a ring cuffed to their ear). Once a month, the Commanders, the infertile Wives and the Handmaids partake in a conception ceremony, an euphemism for state-sanctioned r*pe.
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The story is told from Offred’s perspective, a Handmaid. Offred is not our regular ‘rebellious, assertive and fearless’ protagonist; she is resilient, but also submissive and passive. Although many may criticise her nature, this is an accurate representation of another type of woman (almost never represented in media as they are “bad role models for young girls”) — women who identify the oppressive structures of the system but feel powerless, who are not self-sacrificial leaders but self-preserving individuals, who have their own tiny acts of rebellion that help them survive. Without material markers of self-identity, Offred often indulges in personal rituals, like rubbing butter on her skin as a moisturizer, taking long baths, or remembering faint memories to regain a sense of self and to feel like a person again. Her acts of self-care themselves are a rebellion against a regime that treats female bodies as commodities. Throughout lockdown, I observed myself indulging in self-care activities whenever I felt overwhelmed or helpless. And then it hit me — self-care helps us ground ourselves, and to reconnect with the person inside this body, a body that is a constant battleground for liberation. Not only do we hear Offred’s personal account, we are also made aware of other women’s struggles in Gilead. In this clear segregation, Wives and Aunts are more domineering and cruel to Handmaids, which makes one think “Why would a woman oppress another woman in a regime which collectively oppresses women?” At first, this idea seems bizarre. But, as the plot progresses, pitting women against each other is a convenient tool used to maintain the patriarchal order of Gilead. These displays seem very compensatory in nature - by allowing higher-ranked women to feel small doses of power, the patriarchs disassociate them from the actuality, which is that these women too are powerless and have very little freedom for themselves. By distorting the idea of sisterhood and creating an environment of jealousy and distrust, the women of Gilead are unconsciously complicit in their collective oppression. This is a tool in our reality too, where women are indoctrinated to see each other as competitors for a partner, or for their career. As higher-ranked positions are often rationed for women, it exposes the implicit assumption that there is room for only a handful of women at the top. Inspired by some words from John Green, I can now say that we always think of the future to be better than the present. We expect it to be more progressive, with less things going wrong, and with people living better lives. But The Handmaid’s Tale envisions a future so regressive and bleak that our yearning for the future involves grasping for the glorified past, no matter how oppressive it might’ve been. So, let’s never stop fighting because the alternative is a dystopia not far from the clutches of the systems surrounding us.
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12 Days of Feminist Christmas By Eliot George
What does it mean to be a woman? In 2020, it is a blessing that there is no single answer to this question. No longer must a person’s claim to ‘womanhood’ rest on their ability to raise a family or menstruate monthly. Instead, we can celebrate the variety of those human beings who do choose to identify as women, and recognise that each person has a unique understanding of what their gender means to them. Yet, dear readers, this multiplicity of experiences should not obscure the continuities across the lives of many women. And unfortunately, one of those continuities appears to be a lifetime of emotional labour. We are not just women; to those around us we are also friends, therapists, mothers, personal assistants – the list goes on. Is this fair? No, not particularly. But until we hold men to the same standards that we do women, I suspect many of us will continue to be dragged into the social role of the ‘educator’. So, with that in mind, I present:
‘All the Things I’ve Somehow Had to Explain to Previous Boyfriends, Because I Simply Could Not Let Them Continue As They Were’ 1. When I’m on my period, I cannot ‘see’ the egg. I am not a goose. 2. As an adult man, you need to take more than one paracetamol for a headache. 3. When you are in a relationship with someone, it is a good idea to discuss your feelings with them. 4. You are not that complex. And, trust me, therapy is a great idea. 5. If you’re feeling unwell and coincidentally haven’t eaten in eight hours, it may be because you haven’t eaten in eight hours. 6. This is where my clitoris is. (This, surprisingly, will need to be explained more than once.) 7. Moisturising your face is a normal thing to do. 8. Buying new underwear is not difficult, and it’s nice to do once in a while. 9. If I have a stomach-ache, putting on multiple layers of warm clothing will not have the same effect as a hot water bottle. 10. You can, in fact, use a concealer if you’re a man. 11. You should go to the dentist more than once every two years. 12. Yes, there are three holes.
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1. Why God Is A Woman (Nin Andrews)
“Why God Is a Woman is a collection of poems written about a magical island where wome rule and men are the second sex. It is also the story of a boy who, exiled from the island because he could not abide by its sexist laws, looks back with both nostalgia and bitterness and wonders: Why does God have to be a woman?” (Book Depository)
Photo: Nin Andrews
Photo: Buzzfeed
2. Veep Julia Louis-Dreyfus is Vice President of the United States Selina Meyer, who
finds the job is nothing like she expected, but everything her incompetent staff warned her about. (HBO)
3. In Her Words (The New York Times Newsletter)
A weekly newsletter “where women rule the headlines”.
Grater Recommendations from us to you!
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A True Stream of Consciousness By Mel Benedichuk
This is a true stream of consciousness. We’re on the verge of greatness or total human disaster. This is a true stream of consciousness. More like a message recorded using a pink Nokia flip phone to those who will come after me. They won’t care about the contents of this message or the one who left it behind -- me. A universe and a speck of dust, everything and nothing, creation and destruction, life and death. I live and I die. You live and you die. Do you fancy dying together? Hand in hand, or just on the same (preselected) day? Never mind. Come as you please. The outcomes are unpredictable. This is a true stream of consciousness. Despairing/pedantic/disorderly/ reckless it is not, it’s none of these things. This is a stream of consciousness, a stream by definition, it flows and so I no longer think. But consciousness! It’s there. Like a curse or a scar, the stains of an ugly snail, the nail polish I spilt and never washed off, brain almost splattered all over the bathroom floor, hoping it would cease to do the very thing it was created to do -- THINK! When I was born, I used to know how to cry. All babies cry when they are born because somewhere deep inside they know that they would’ve been better off chilling together on the thick branches of their heavenly lemon tree, in their celestial crystal castle, or in their shithole of a pub in paradise. No boundaries, no divisions, all unashamed, naked, genderless, and ultimately -- happy. What was ‘happy’ supposed to mean back then? When I was born, I used to know how to cry. I must’ve inherited tears from my mother, for she’d cry every time she feared I wouldn’t be born and then every time she wished I wasn’t her daughter. I had one fear - the fear of love misplaced and love withdrawn. What is love? I’d ask page ten of a magazine for girls (next to where it says ‘How to Find Your Perfect Boyfriend’) or maybe the reverse of a bubble gum wrapper reading ‘Love is…’ Apparently, love is two people kissing. I don’t think I’ve ever seen Mom and Dad kiss. My mom has a tangerine for a heart. The glossy orange skin helped keep its precious contents locked away from the world, safely secured. Daughters must inherit sadness from their mothers. My mom’s tangerine heart was perfectly sealed off, all before the surrounding world let its tender insides be touched by dirty fingers, tearing apart whatever it holds, scattering the orange flesh much like a lion would tear up the remaining meat of a freshly slaughtered antelope. Once just a baby girl, she was taught that happiness is sacrificing yourself for the sake of others’ happiness. A true woman’s joy, they’d say. That was the first breach in the tangerine skin, juice slowly trickling away from the wounds carved out with so much tenderness by the hands and tongues of those who seemed to always know better. “You’ll understand when your first child starts kicking inside your womb,” they’d say. You’ll also understand when you can no longer sleep at night because of baby screams on top of anxious insomnia, and when your husband tells you that this exhaustion is what you’ve always wanted. Mom rarely lamented what they did to her poor little heart -- she only did sometimes, when we’d sit alone in the kitchen finishing up our last couple glasses of wine, remembering that we still needed to (hand) wash all of the dishes. I have a tangerine heart just like her. Glossy skin to keep the insides away from the world.
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Daughters must inherit sadness from their mothers. It never speaks inside of them as loudly as it does when (newfound) lovers slam the door and leave, in the moments when this pain is shared. Life lesson number one: let them touch your lips but never let them reach down inside your shirt. Reach down to your heart, I mean. What is love? Apparently, love is being naked and defenseless, one-on-one in a room with a bunch of crumpled up letters and scars from things you’d never say because you don’t know how to. Naked and defenseless, when you don’t know whether they’ll kiss you or kick you when you’re down on your knees. Open up! Tell me about yourself. What is there to say? My life is about unforeseen change and turbulent redefinition, about a gradual demolition of everything I used to hold true. This is a story about how I built my so-called soul. I stitched together the pieces of all the shit and not-so-shit things I could gather. My soul looks like a poorly-made patchwork blanket where nothing fits together and nothing goes together, but! Don’t forget, my life is that of a stray cat so that’s the only soul I have to rely on. I heard you want to see more of my soul. Ready to see some badly-stitched patchwork? Look at all of this. The face you see, the face I own, another face I own, fuck, who am I? Who am I out of all these identities I’ve assimilated but never owned? I’m all the things at once and none of them in particular. The geeky bookish kid. The bitch from the debate club. The punk-rock-star-wannabe. The girl who’ll never be popular. Through all of this, the only thread -words. I used to know how to cry, but now I can only cry in ink & paper. You want to see this too? You sure? It doesn’t matter if you love me or not, as long as I can love myself. It doesn’t matter if you hate me or not as long as I have enough self-hatred to go around. As I grew older, I thought I’d understand. Turns out I’m just more tangled up, tangled up in bedsheets scattered under my feet and endless lists of hopes and expectations. I was taught that love isn’t something to lose so I ran after being lovable, opening up, tearing up the skin, tearing up my tangerine heart, tearing up…love is naked and defenseless, and chances are you’ll stumble upon someone willing to stab you as you’re (carelessly) dropping your clothes to the floor in front of them. I don’t even think I know much about myself. Spare me from having to tell you something I barely know -- who the hell am I? I don’t want to have to sacrifice myself for the sake of others’ happiness. I also don’t think I’ve ever learned of another way of being happy. Maybe just back in heaven, on the thick branches of that lemon tree… This is a true stream of consciousness. We’re on the verge of greatness or total human disaster.
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a trio of mothers becomes sisters again calling family and gathering friends we have our own clan, equal daughters and sons it takes a whole village to raise little ones not only in birth but in burial tooit is those women who carried us through.
the eldest, she organized and directed with care the middle, in denial and just barely there their offspring, us cousins, helped out where we could the priority of each other long understood and if something (like dinner!) slipped by, just perhapswell, the youngest? she always filled in all the gaps.
their men were bent over, the young and the old, as they tried to be strong, just like they were told the whistle now silent, like his old brass trumpeti’m glad we hugged, cousin, the last time we met and now, three years later, we keep him with us with old jokes and pictures. it still feels unjust.
out of the blues by Kaitlin Beranek
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Artist Spotlight: The Guerrilla Girls
By Riddhi Kanetkar
The subjectivity of art lends itself the opportunity to exhibit a wide range of genders, cultures and movements in an equalising manner. Why then, has the art industry become so notorious for its lack of representative diversity in galleries, collections and auctions? The Guerrilla Girls are an all-female group of artist activists who have aimed to redress this issue since the mid-1980s. Formed in New York City in 1985, the group are renowned for their efforts in raising awareness about sexism and racism in the art world. They also sport gorilla masks and the names of deceased female artists, because they believe that the movement is bigger than their individual identities. From producing posters, billboards and even stickers, not only have they sought to subvert the homogeneity of artists acquired by collectors, but also the style of art. Their core aims are: “An intersectional feminism that fights discrimination and supports human rights for all people and all genders. We undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair.� Their art is notable for its deviation from traditional methods to more contemporary forms which utilise typography and writing. Although some have critiqued their seemingly plain stylistics, they have chosen to privilege a conceptual style of art, which places subject matter at the forefront of their artistic practices. We can see this resonate in the vast majority of their work, which is also often underscored by a message of feminist, political satire.
Photo: The Guerrilla Girls, via National Museum of Women in the Arts
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Part of the ‘Feminism and Media’ selection at the Tate Modern, their work embodies a shift towards a politicised form of art. These posters challenge the unequal structures in the art world, which work to the detriment of women artists and artists of colour. Their slogans are short and beguiling, prominently underlined by a tone of satire which critiques the white, male hegemony within the art industry. The pink poster below is another parodical poster that takes on an epistolary format, and directly addresses art collectors for their androcentric art collections. While the pink background and cursive handwriting is a gesture to traditionally emphasised feminine aesthetics, they have mobilised on this visual by subverting it, to instead express a sardonic message.
Photos: The Guerrilla Girls, via Tate Modern
This parodical poster particularly underlines the tongue-in-cheek tone that the Guerrilla Girls employ when calling out the asymmetrical practices in the industry. A shift from visual art to text-based content also destabilised the paradigms existing in the art industry, which was previously very visually, fine-art dominated. Their departure from these orthodox forms is a further testament to the way they have sought to modernise the way that art is portrayed. The following billboard is another addressal to art collectors, but is more variegated in colour – presumably because they wanted a strong visual impact, as it would be displayed outside museums. This tackles the classist dimension of art collection, and highlights the parallels between art collectors and billionaires in propagating economic disparities. There is a strong political element that pervades through their work, because they have pushed art beyond its aesthetic category, and imbued their work with a strong egalitarian message.
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Photo: The Guerrilla Girls, via JSTOR Daily
Why is their work so significant? Conforming to many other sectors, the art industry has severely underrepresented both women and artists of colour – a predicament that has affected women artists of colour the most. Historically, there have been many exclusionary mechanisms in place that made it difficult for these groups to break into the industry. In her essay ‘Why have there been no great women artists?’ the art theorist Linda Nochlin explains that women were prevented from entering art-guilds and academies which denied them the opportunity to create major artworks. Furthermore, prior to second-wave feminism, women were largely encouraged to occupy themselves with domestic tasks and motherhood, which dissuaded many from a professional career in art. Similarly, racial inequality has been a defining factor in art galleries across the world. A study conducted by PLOS ONE in 2019 found that:
“85.4% of the works in the collections of all major US museums belong to white artists, and 87.4% are by men. African American artists have the lowest share with just 1.2% of the works; Asian artists total at 9%; and Hispanic and Latino artists constitute only 2.8% of the artists.” Underrepresenting artists of colour not only strips them of professional opportunities, but also diminishes the prospect of showcasing a wider cultural perspective that is equally enriching to society. These statistics point to an enduring lacuna in representation in art galleries and collections across the world. While in recent years, female artists, LGBTQ+ artists and artists of colour have seen a steady rise in breakthroughs at auctions, there is still much work to be done. Art is an expression of identity. To deny that right to groups who are already marginalised is to erase their powerful stories from the mosaic of narratives currently occupying the art world. In revolutionising existing artistic practices, as well as confronting archaic conventions and opinions, the Guerrilla Girls have politicised the plain – seeking out to transform the art world from its monolithic roots to a more kaleidoscopic institution.
Grater Expectations
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Grater Expectations is a feminist zine under UCL’s investigative magazine The Cheese Grater.
Through exposé, poetry, art, and more, Grater Expectations aims to inform, entertain, and satisfy your appetite for feminism. Send in your submissions or any questions for the next issue: zine@cheesegratermagazine.org
UCL Cheese Grater Magazine Society President—Rob Davidson Editor-in-Chief—Sophia Robinson Investigations Editor—Riddhi Kanetkar Humour Editor—Ella Ticktin-Smith Online Editor—Adam Bloss Graphics Editor—Maryam Badghisi
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