EuroVisie April 2016 - Conference edition

eurovisie

een uitgave van studievereniging europese studies a publication of the study association of european studies

harry potter politics also in this issue: digitised migration / transgenders russians on the internet / ukrainian civic nationalism

volume 11 issue 4 april 2016

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editorial maitrie ramautar

eurovisie / april 2016

contents

E ses-news: internationalisation page 4 ENGLISH

harry potter politics page 6 english

digitised migration page 8 english

Leerssen page 11 english

ukrainian civic nationalism Page 12 English

russian internet practises page 14 english

beeldvorming rond transgenders pagina 16 nederlands

very year around April, the EuroVisie has a special edition.

All editors write an article in the same theme as the SES conference. This year the underlying theme is Europe in the media. In my opinion, this is quite an interesting subject, especially since it is different in every European country.

Media should be a way to report the news to people in an objective manner. However, more often than not, this does not seem to be the case. In an ideal world, journalists should put their political agenda aside. Unfortunately, this is easier said than done. The result is a fairly biased coverage of sensitive topics.

We have a lot of interesting articles for you, including a comparison between muggles and refugees, the portrayal of transgenders in the UK, Russia and Sweden and Ukrainian civic nationalism.

The first problem of the media is posed by what does not get translated, or even published in the dominant political languages, the ones that dictate the laws of receivability. –Jacques Derrida

imprint

hoe 9/11 de media domineert pagina 18 nederlands

April 2016

Editorial office Spuistraat 134, 1012 VB Amsterdam, room 0.17, i.t.n.o. SES Editor-in-chief Maitrie Ramautar Editors Michelle Kooiman, Mats Licht, Levente Vervoort, Ruben Wissing Final editing Inge Getkate Design Emiel Janssens With contributions by Joep Leerssen, Aleksandar Malinov, Sudha Rajagopalan, Marlieke Ruiter

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S ES - N EWS E Ng li s h

Internationalisation in European Studies It has been repeatedly emphasized that with the arrival of the English track and the international students both the education and the atmosphere would benefit from it. How has this developed in reality? And what is left for improvement? Marlieke Ruiter gathered some opinions of two of our first year European Studies students.

Janneke van den Bosch, 1st year Dutch student European Studies (English track) What do you think about the level of English in the programme?

Janneke: “In the beginning I found it difficult to switch to English; I think it is also somewhat harder for Dutch students. Some books are harder to read than others, but I suppose that’s normal.”

You’re from Amsterdam yourself. Do you believe or feel that there is a division between Dutch and international students?

“Not in general, but maybe a little bit due to the fact that all Dutch students already have their whole life here, while most international students have to build up their life here from the beginning.”

What are your experiences with the seminars in an international group? Do the different perspectives add value to the seminars, as generally expected?

“Yes, it is interesting to hear other perspectives on Europe. I think it really adds value to the discussions.”

Do you have experienced any difficulties as a student within European Studies or the University of Amsterdam?

“Not much. I do think there was little attention paid how to do the reference in papers.

But my tutor is really helpful, I also think it will come in handy when I have to choose my major. ”

What do you think about the level of English in lectures and seminars?

Pearse: “It really differs from the courses and teachers. Some of them are better than others.”

Of course, you get along with almost everyone. But unfortunately we’re not all like you. Do you believe or feel that there is a division between Dutch and international students?

“Not really. Everybody did a really good job at the start of the year, I felt really welcome. We all tried to mingle very well.”

What are your experiences with the seminars in an international group? Do the different perspectives add value to the seminars, as generally expected?

“I think it adds value, especially with a course as European Integration. Everyone gives the perspective of their own country; how Europe or the integration process is perceived for example.”

Is there a particular dominant perspective within the programme?

“No, I don’t think so. It is such a broad programme, so you’ll have different angles.”

Do you have experienced any difficulties as an international student within the University of Amsterdam?

“Only printing was hard in the beginning. But if I have problems, I always come to you guys.”

And perhaps outside the UvA? “Just received a letter from the Gemeente Amsterdam, with a fine. I don’t even know what for. ”

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EuroVisie

Pearse Quinn, 1st year international student European Studies (English track)

ENglish sponsored

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We visited Bodytec Lounge at the Stadhouderskade, where we did a full body workout in just 20 minutes!

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Under the guidance of a handsome personal trainer we did some exercises with the electrodes all over our body. To some it felt really strange, while others

experienced a nice feeling on their muscles (see the picture of Wouter).

Of course you get to install the power of the electrodes to your personal preference. Being a bit sceptical at first, and saying “oh, this is not that hard”, we all experienced an intensive training after which we especially felt our legs and butt the day after.

Our conclusion? An EMS training at Bodytec Lounge is a fun, quick and highly effective workout.

Is it suitable for students? On the one hand, it saves you time and effort – this is perfect for the lazy student, you can dive in your books and still be a #fitgirl. On the other hand, it is a bit more expensive than a regular gym. But if you would still do some cardio or if you are already in a sports team, this could be great addition to your training. Our advice is to go once or twice in every two weeks, preferably the day after the Borrel.

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REFUGEES english

harry potter politics HOW EUROPE TREATS REFUGEES AS MUGGLES

This opinion piece was delivered to EuroVisie by owl mail.

Levente Vervoort

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S

ince every volume of the Harry Potter series tallied more than 50 million sales approximately, it is hardly surprising many doctoral theses and essays have been written about its meaning and message. At the time I demanded my dad to use the ‘proper voices’ when he read me The Philosopher’s Stone, I drew little parallels between the book’s politics and current international affairs. However, when I stumbled across a 2007 article by Aviva

“Neville Chamberlain’s role is adeptly played by appeasing Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, whose surname is really his sole appealing property”

Chomsky using the Harry Potter narrative to explain United States immigration laws, it was a small step to compare the current global migration crisis to the Harry Potter situation. Chomsky is a professor of LatinAmerican history and published several works on Latino immigration to the United States, but being the daughter of one of the twentieth century’s most brilliant minds certainly helped to get my full attention.

A quick recap: Harry Potter is a recalcitrant teenage wizard, who is raised by his Muggle aunt and uncle, after Lord Voldemort, the most powerful and malicious sorcerer, killed his parents.

Harry rebutted Voldemort’s killing spell, the first of many unlikely, but all the more impressive moves that unravel in seven volumes of already classic good-againstbad action. Voldemort retreated and left Harry with a lightning bolt scar on his forehead. The most crucial topic dividing the good guys from the bad guys, are the rights and duties of Muggles, that is, people who are not able to perform magic – at all. A Muggle and Wizard’s offspring is called a Half-Blood, while Muggle-borns or

Mudbloods are Wizards from an all-Muggle family.

Essentially, Voldemort and his Death Eaters grand plan is to subdue the Muggles to the wizarding world, while also separating pure-blood Wizards from those whose lineage is ‘polluted’ by Muggle ancestors.

The Death Eaters are the wizard fascists.

Even Harry’s iconic scar refers to the lightning bolt used by both the Nazi’s SS as the British Union of Fascists, according to author J.K. Rowling. Luckily, in the first couple of books, Voldemort and his wanded Wehrmacht are either fugitive of imprisoned. It should be noted though that all the while the Wizards live in completely secrecy, with only the Muggle Prime Minister informed of some major wizarding catastrophes every once in a while. This makes Voldemort’s second rise to power even more unlucky, as the Death Eaters effectively war declaration on Muggles comes totally unexpected, apart from the fact that Muggles are greatly disadvantaged (they cannot perform magic).

From here on, the Muggles are essentially powerless people, whose world is devastated by war. They seek protection from the Wizards, who possess all wealth and power. Sadly however, by the time things really get out of hand, the Death Eaters have already seized control over the Ministry of Magic and other institutions of the wizarding world. Additionally, this could only happen after the Ministry and magical mass media denied Voldemort’s resurrection and the end of The Goblet of Fire, when the Dark Lord returns from his incorporeal form in a bloody graveyard ritual. In the Voldemort-Hitler analogy Neville Chamberlain’s role is adeptly played by appeasing Minister of Magic Cornelius Fudge, whose surname is really his sole appealing property. Now in power, Voldemort’s followers found the MuggleBorn Registration Commission and spread a pamphlet titled ‘Mudbloods and the Dangers they Pose to a Peaceful PureBlood Society’.

‘Surely, Europe is not ruled by fascists!

EU-nationality is not based on ideas about blood!’ some might argue. But here is the crux: obviously our constitutions prevent any discrimination on the ground of race or ethnicity, at the same time they dictate

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it. Still, our immigration, citizenship and naturalization laws are based explicitly on discrimination on the basis of national origin. Where you were born, and what passport you carry, determine whether you have the right to come, to work, or to live here. Once a citizen, the law is racially blind, providing a country has open borders. But with walls, border patrols, registrations and other racially restrictive immigration laws, this citizenship becomes (yet) another nation-state instrument supplying exclusion and discrimination.

Refugees from war-torn or Third World countries are thus in a sense as powerless as Harry Potter’s Muggles. Now that Europe’s wizarding secrecy is forever over, these refugees are coming to our wealthy, safe and powerful wizarding world. If we can draw any lessons from Harry

“We should learn to coexists with these Syrian, Afghan and Kosovar Muggles.

We will give them a wand, teach them to fly”

Potter, it is that we should learn to coexist with these Syrian, Afghan and Kosovar Muggles. We will give them a wand, teach them to fly. At the same time, we should vocally address our own problems and actively battle the Death Eating Pegidas and Nederland Mijn Vaderlands that are poisoning our time.

So, if you see anyone buying a pig’s head, if you hear someone calling refugees rapists or murderers, if someone tells you he fears European culture will perish if we let in refugees, you might as well call them by what they really are: Death Eaters.

Fortunately, we do not need a Harry Potter to save the world. It is already a big step to join the red-and-yellow House of Gryffindor, or your local antifa.

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m edia english

THE Great MIGration digitised Even the most xenophobic Europeans will have to admit that there is always some degree of cultural similarity with even the most remote peoples coming to invade the Occident. Despite what the recent tide of right-wing populists will have us believe, Europeans and immigrants share, if nothing else, at least one common trait: their absolute reliance on new media.

MATS LICHT

W

hen the first waves of refugees hit the train stations of Germany’s heartland, a common image alienated some parts of society from the largely sympathetic crowd: if these are truly refugees, then they are supposed to be poor.

They are supposed to have lost everything. Why then are they carrying smartphones?! The sight of the recent arrivals happily chatting away on their phones was too much to bear for the right-wing conservatives. It meant that these people were evidently not “true” refugees. The fact that they were most likely trying to reach surviving members of their family who were hiding somewhere else did not necessarily help their anti-refugee narrative and was thus conveniently forgotten.

omnipresent access to information is not something uniquely European, or rather “Western”. The frequency and ease with which we consume facts, news and casual games has long since spilled over into the less fortunate regions of the planet. In fact, it stands to reason that media

In reality, the omnipresence of the West’s favourite plaything in the hands of the war-torn masses signals something very different. It merely shows us that our reliance on online media and our infatuation with

have become the world’s favourite resource. This can not only be seen from the priorities refugees set when hastily departing by boat via the Mediterranean, but by a number of different developments as well. The

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“The frequency and ease with which we consume facts, news and casual games has long since spilled over into the less fortunate regions of the planet”

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arrival of Big Data has long been heralded as the new set-off point for service-based businesses in Europe.

Data-driven businesses are amongst the most valuable in the world right now. On the corporate side, media already are the defining economic driving force of this decade. As is obvious to any concerned business professional, they are so because of media businesses’ deep penetration into even non-developed markets, markets that many of Europe’s present refugees are arriving from.

Indeed, if one were to ask anyone from the business side of the so called data revolution, as the term has been coined by international economic journalism, there is no question that modern media have long since penetrated the entire globe, with the possible exception of central Africa.

When analysing media’s importance in other fields of the world’s daily business, one will inevitably notice that at least since the arrival of the so-called Arab Spring, no serious

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political turmoil has happened without the major influence of modern, in this case especially social, media.

During the anti-establishment uprising in the Arab world, Facebook was used to consolidate and organise the opposition. In Ukraine, it became substantial in getting the truth out of the country and into the traditional media channels of the West. It seems only natural that refugees, most of them having been exiled by conflict that arose in continuation of the original Arab Spring uprising, would hold the access to modern media as a high, in some cases the highest, good.

“What politicians and traditional media still struggle to achieve, new media manages almost without an effort” The new influx of tech-savvy, mediahungry immigrants serves not only as a lesson about the state of the world in terms of New Media integration, however. It also presents a plethora of opportunities and chances for development to European purveyors of media content. While most of those opportunities remain largely untapped so far, some thrifty app developers have already smelled the coffee. Instead of criticising refugees for holding on to their own little windows to the world, they seek to utilise smartphones as means to help welcoming, orientating and integrating the newcomers. Welcome App Germany started as a local guide for immigrants to the city of Dresden, of all places, Germany’s most notorious hotspot of xenophobic public uprising. Nevertheless successful, it now offers a comprehensive guide to German civil services, important contacts and emergency advice for refugees. Circumventing the one integral weakness of smartphonebased information, the app works wholly offline and updates its available information whenever a data

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connection is within reach. Similarly, an app called rather unimaginatively Germany – First Information for Refugees offers an offline catalogue of guides to German culture, social conventions and how to behave in public, aimed at the same target group. This app aims to replace the numerous handouts and information sheets that are handed out to newly arriving refugees but are just as easily lost as they are forgotten by offering the same information, just in a more convenient, accessible and hard to lose fashion. These apps, albeit being seemingly small contributions to a rather large problem, manage providing something more than just a helpful alternative to paperwork. They manage to instill a sense of belonging in violently uprooted people by offering them the same media channels they are used to. What politicians and traditional media still struggle to achieve, new media manages almost without an effort. These apps are merely small, individual attempts at tackling the refugee situation and capitalising the idea a bit on the way.

Imagine what would be possible to attain if some of the concentrated national efforts invested were to be redirected to creating appropriate new media channels for refugees.

Efforts are already well underway in some regards, like the German government now officially sponsoring a smartphone based language course for migrants, hugely relieving the already struggling existing, physical infrastructure. But there is still plenty of space for new ventures. Nontraditional media could be the key to unlocking modern-day migration.

Nevertheless, not all is lost for old media, as the example of news station n-tv shows. One of the biggest news networks in Germany, the company had no time to lose when the present “crisis” began. They started a regular web broadcast in Arabic, the language of the vast majority of recent migrants in Germany, hosted

by Arabic-speaking host Constantin Schreiber. In each installment, Schreiber addresses a certain issue facing Syrians in Germany, such as the European’s love affair with pets, EuroVisie

particularly dogs, which will seem all but weird to most Arabs. The show does not shy away from controversial topics, however, addressing such issues as the appropriate treatment of women, or the possibility of facing xenophobic hostilities or even violence. Some of the topics mentioned have been motivated by specific recent events, such as the infamous Cologne Station assaults on New Year’s or the numerous arson attacks on refugee housing. The show enjoys significant popularity, not least because of Schreiber’s immaculate Syrian accent, and is even endorsed by the official authorities and used for educational purposes. Thanks to it, n-tv has stepped into the limelight as the leading moderate voice during the so-called refugee crisis.

While examples such as n-tv’s sadly remain rare so far, it is obvious that the recent developments and the

“The show enjoys significant popularity, not least because of Schreiber’s immaculate Syrian accent” connected influx of large groups of technologically and media adept refugees is not only a challenge to our states’ fourth power. Instead of being a one-way street that demands effort from established media, it also offers a considerable amount of opportunities, to new media as well as old. In fact, it might be an unprecedented source of legitimacy for both of them.

New media may gain from showing they can accomplish more than sharing holiday pictures and creating shitstorms, while traditional media may regain much of the influence and legitimacy they had thought lost to the technological revolution. In any case, the media might be our best shot at solving the “crisis” to the mutual benefit of all. In one word, they should do just that: mediate.

e n g li s h co lu m n

leerssen

“the media is the mess”

W

hat do Europe, Pope Francis and Rihanna have in common?

These weeks/months I am rewatching Mad Men – one of the great masterpieces of the Golden Age of the TV Serial. Way up there with The Wire and The Sopranos. The world may be going down the drain — climate, universities, politics, you name it – but hey! The TV serials were never better!

Mad Men is the saga of a creative executive in an advertising agency on Madison Avenue (the ad-men of mad’ ave) in the early 1960s.

Mad Men splendidly captures the mentality of consumerism (Western, modern, innovative; so why aren’t we happy?) just before the challenge of feminism and the counterculture.

Through the world of advertising it offers a very intriguing perspective on social attitudes and developments between the death of Marilyn Monroe and the first moon landing. In these years, psychologists were taking hold of that field. They wanted to predict customer choices and brand appeal with methods like Motivational Research, and tested “Hidden Persuaders”. Things like spin control and “branding”, now such powerful political tactics, were really invented in and around the advertising agencies of Madison Avenue. Publicity was

getting ready to take over society. The public sphere would soon become a Publicity Sphere.

One book that signalled the encroachment of publicity on politics very early on was Daniel Boorstin’s The Image: A guide to Pseudo-Events in America (1962). The book is full of quotable soundbites (it is actually the source of that definition of celebrity as “being famous for being famous”). But more importantly, it exposes a type of politics that is more concerned with how things look in the media than what they actually achieve in the real world: press conferences, photo-ops.

That was still a new thing in 1962.

Boy, we have come a lo-o-o-ong way since then. In these post-postmodern days we know that there is no truth whatsoever outside the eye of the beholder, and that no justice is done unless it is seen to be done. Ask 100 heteronormative men what they would prefer: to spend a night with Rihanna but no-one would ever know, or NOT to sleep with her but everyone would believe that you had. Guess how those responses would pan out.

Image trumps reality every time. (So does Donald.)

So now we consider “Europe in the Media”, and how can we not worry?

No charismatic leaders, no inspiring April 2016

ideals or glorious memories, and no real come-back against all those smart-alecs who blame it for all the woes in this wicked world… Europe seems to be a everyone’s default scapegoat. “Europe and the Media” reads like “Nigel the Nerdy Rabbit at the Crocodile Convention”. But then again… if we take anything at all and we add the words “and the media” to it, we get the same ominous ring. The University and the Media (uh-oh…).

Amsterdam and the Media (uh-oh…).

Prince Charles and the Media (duh!).

The Pope and the Media (aargh…).

Rihanna and the Media (hmmm…).

The conclusion is unavoidable. The Media ARE the problem. The media nowadays are needy, narcissistic attention-seekers; they are dedicated to brevity, simplicity, shock value, and in desperate, insatiable need of catching our eye. The media are now a form, not of communication, but of publicity. They cannibalise the messages they are supposed to convey. So instead of worrying about “Europe and the media”, we need to think harder about “the media and Europe”; the media as a problem that Europe needs to tackle.

Joep Leerssen is Professor of European literature at the University of Amsterdam.

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h i s t o ry e n g l i s h

can ukraine

On the 6th of April, Dutch citizens will vote in a referendum about an EU-Ukraine association agreement - a good reason to learn more about this borderland. ALEKSANDAR MALINOV writes about the origins of Ukrainian civic nationalism.

C

ivic nationalism has been the foundation of the modern Western civilization. It evolved from the Enlightenment tradition of values such as freedom, tolerance, equality, individual rights and the ideas of rationalism and liberalism. At the end of the 18th century the radical idea of a ‘Civic Nation’ influenced the emergence of two documents that would have immense consequences for the history of Europe and the world. “…to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to affect their Safety and Happiness.” – Such were the reasons that led thirteen British colonies in North America to declare their independence from the Crown in 1776. The American revolutionaries were followed by their French counterparts thirteen years later, when the National Constituent Assembly

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in Paris passed a declaration stating, among other articles, that “the goal of any political association is the conservation of the natural and imprescriptible rights of man. These rights are liberty, property, safety and resistance against oppression”, as well as “the free communication of thoughts and of opinions is one of the most precious rights of man: any citizen thus may speak, write, and print freely, except to respond to the abuse of this liberty, in the cases determined by the law.” The United States Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen sent shockwaves through the emerging civil societies in Europe. The fact that those ideals could not only be envisioned, but also serve as a base for successful state structures, was indeed revolutionary.

In 1845-1846 the same ideas grew within the environment of the Ukrainian national revival. A secret society was established in Kyiv, aiming not only for Ukrainian independence, but for independence based on transforming the social order of the Russian empire according to the Christian principles of justice, freedom, equality, and brotherhood. The group

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led by historian Mykola Kostomarov and a young Taras Shevchenko, among many other representatives of Ukrainian intelligentsia, took the name “Saints Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood” (КирилоМетодіївське братство), after the celebrated Byzantine scholar brothers who helped spread Christianity among Slavs in the 9th century – the two were later canonized by the Orthodox church.

The symbolism that these patrons stood for was both spiritual and political, as this 10-centuries old legacy stressed on the revived memory of an independent and glorious Kievan Rus’. The brotherhood proposed several reforms: abolition of serfdom and equality of rights for all estates; equal opportunity for all Slavic nations to develop their national language and culture; education for the broad masses of the people. These ideas were not just part of the guild’s philosophical, political and artistic works but they went as far as implementing the foundation of a future Ukrainian constitution. A Shevchenko-influenced poet, Yurii Andruzky, produced the “Outlines of the Constitution of the Republic” in 1850, which envisioned a future federal Slavic

become a civic nation? state which was to include ‘Ukraine, including the Black Sea, Galicia and Crimea, Poland with Poznan and Lithuania, Bessarabia with Moldavia and Wallachia, the Eastern Sea, Serbia, Bulgaria and the Don’. There was no place for the imperial center, that is, Moscow, in that new constitutional federal state. The fact that those members of the 19th century Ukrainian elite were influenced by ideas of civic nationalism was later acknowledged by the renowned historian and statesman Mikhail Hrushevsky. Speaking to the New York Times in February 1918 as the acting President of the Central Rada – the council of the short-lived Ukrainian People’s Republic – Hrushevsky stressed that ‘thanks to the ideals imported from Western Europe, Ukrainian political thought abandoned its former aspirations and replaced them with a realizable political program’ and continued ‘they (Saints Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood) desired a democratic and liberal constitution which would abolish privileges and classes.

Absolute freedom of speech, of thought and of religion was to be guaranteed’.

What was crucial for the impossibility of

Ukrainian civil political thought to evolve into a wide constitution-based civic nation was the ruthless repression by the Russian government and the Tsar himself. Shortly after the “Saints Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood” was created, in March 1847 its members were arrested and punished without a trial by imprisonment or exile.

The subsequent history of Ukraine, to put it mildly, did not provide the necessary conditions for civic nationalism and liberalism to flourish. Serfdom in the Russian empire was eventually abolished in 1861 by the liberal Tsar Alexander II, who was ironically assassinated in 1881 by socialist revolutionaries. The beginning of the 20th century brought chaos to Russia, as two revolutions (1905 and 1917) and the disastrous First World War (1914-1917) were followed by a bloody civil war and the implementation of Lenin’s “war communism”, which contributed to a mass famine in Soviet Russia, causing the deaths of millions. In the 1930s, under Stalin’s rule, millions of Ukrainians starved to death in yet another mass famine – the Holodomor, literally “Hungerextermination”. The following Second World War and its Eastern Front (1941-

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1945) were particularly disastrous for Ukraine, as its territory endured the bulk of the fighting and suffered between seven and ten million total deaths, as well as the almost total destruction of many of its cities and infrastructure.

Nonetheless, Ukrainian national consciousness kept alive the memory and ideals of its 19th century intellectuals, and after the country proclaimed its independence from the USSR in 1991, there was no doubt that its most celebrated national heroes would be Shevchenko and Hrushevsky, the bearers of the Brotherhood’s ideas. Only time will tell if political conditions would be favorable enough for the realisation of the Ukrainian civic nation that was imagined in the 1840s, but what is important is that Ukrainians have a concrete liberal tradition upon which to adapt their state and society – a tradition not less influential than its famed American and French equivalents.

Aleksandar Malinov (Sofia, 1988) is currently finishing an MA in Eastern European studies at the University of Amsterdam.

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media english

The politics of the mundane: Russia’s unspectacular internet practices

A still from ‘Fashion Verdict’, a Russian TV show

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ur world is heavily mediatised. This means we all use media routinely and they shape our everyday interactions. Mark Deuze, who teaches here at UvA, famously wrote that we live in media, rather than with it. This degree of mediatisation is just as true for Russia, and it makes many researchers wonder about its social and political impact. After anti-establishment protests that took place between 2011 and 2013 in Russia, much was said about the Russian internet’s democratising potential. I think the internet can never be intrinsically democratic or authoritarian; its users determine to a great

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extent what empowering role it can play.

I have found during my research that the spaces of the Russian internet encourage many collaborative and deliberative practices that are in essence a form of political activity. People may not be logging in to mobilise for a revolution. In fact, they may be talking about the most mundane and trivial occurences of their lives. But not surprisingly these conversations often have the seeds of political engagement and are sometimes even explicit articulations of political positions. This is a form of intimate politics or life politics. It is hardly spectacular and it may not be tweetable.

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But it remains very significant for our understanding of Russia’s political culture.

It suggests the emergence of new public spaces and vocabularies, and it forces us to rethink standard assumptions about Russia’s democratic potential.

I consider two kinds of internet practices in this article: everyday conversations around television shows on TV, and the creation of slash videos by media fans. At first glance they may appear to have little to do with each other, but bear with me. I discuss these examples to make a larger point about how internet users act as publics (as politically engaged citizens, in other words)

and how their practices constitute new political habits in Russia.

Traditionally, citizenship practices are seen as distinct from practices of leisure and entertainment. The citizen or the public is seen as opposed to the viewer and the consumer. But political participation is no longer merely about the act of voting.

Media blur boundaries between the civic and the personal, between leisure and politics, and between the local and the global. This means that when we engage in and with media, we often act in very political ways. Perhaps given the widespread distrust of political media and institutions in Russia, political engagement often occurs during internet discussions about seemingly inconsequential issues. I am not talking about a literal discussion of politics and current affairs, but deliberations over identity that are self-reflexive and are inspired by media texts such as television shows. This life politics or intimate politics is concerned with issues that affect the personal most deeply: how we must eat, live, tend to our gardens, how we must think about our bodies, identities, relationships, and representations.

One example of everyday political talk that emerges around media content is the daily conversations on the internet about makeover shows. Makeover shows become the ideal prism to discuss life politics as they are personal interventions that act to discipline the body and physical appearance. Russian television knows a spate of makeover shows such as Modnyi Prigovor (Fashion Verdict), Zolushka Perezagruzka (Cinderella Reloaded), and Snimite eto nemedleno! (Take this off at once!) All these shows guide candidates and the home audience in the art of dressing responsibly and stylishly. These shows seek to shape audience desires, tastes, values and aspirations. This has led some to believe that such shows encourage political withdrawal and disengagement, because they advise viewers to resolve their problems and conflicts within the private sphere.

But it is crucial to study audience responses to contextualise and situate such views of lifestyle television. One finds that people go online to talk back to reality TV. We see in these spaces unspectacular

but significant conversations that engage with public discourses of femininity and hyperconsumerism. Some examples from my research. One person writes, “I have often expressed my despair that Evelina [ed: Evelina Khromchenko, one of the three hosts] insists on putting every candidate on high heels, and has even said that discomfort is necessary to look beautiful.

I doubt this very much!” Another replies, “Yes, especially when this is her advice to a pregnant woman. I doubt that doctors will approve of her asking someone who is pregnant to run on stilettos.” A third continues, “It’s beginning to get on my nerves. Can a woman not simply live??

By herself? Without a husband?? ..I’m not saying men are not necessary. They just don’t have to be husbands. There is another reason to give us a makeover on MP: we aspire to work.”

The more vocal viewers online emphasize a woman’s right to do with her body what she will, to emphasize her individual style and to exercise personal tastes in her own interests rather than for the male gaze.

Viewers’ positions here are not radical.

After all, they do not reject the premise that TV shows must teach them how to dress.

But they do rearticulate what it means to be a woman, and also try to make the show’s prescriptions correspond with real life. They reformulate the terms of ‘being feminine’ and they also challenge the male gaze.

There is another internet practice in Russia that can be construed as a vital political act. Many Runet users take liberties with media texts to tell alternative stories that undermine the dominant culture that those media texts represent.

One of these practices is fan slash. Fans take heterosexual characters in a TV series and create homoerotic stories about the characters. Slash is a classic example, much loved by academics, of identity scavenging –fans take liberties on the internet to explore alternative sexual possibilities that mainstream popular culture either does not engage with or summarily dismisses. In slash vidding, slashers splice together various moments in a TV serial and make videos that suggest that two characters of the same sex are gradually falling in love or are deeply attracted to one another.

This playful exploration of sexuality is against the grain of the mainstream text.

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It is only understandable that for many scholars the writing of slash is seen as a form of resistance or as the hidden texts of subversive politics. In the web forum Slashfiction.ru, Russian ‘slashers’ (those who write slash stories and make videos) note that creating slash media provided ample opportunity to be political in significant ways: “To me being a slasher means … a broader understanding than civil society offers of issues of gender, orientation, the concept of “queer”… having enough imagination to bring a spicy diversity to my intimate affairs; being part of gay culture; I can go on forever— slash is an irrevocable part of my life.”

(Slashfiction.ru) [translated from Russian] These slashers claim that they are able to bring to political debate that which civil society is generally unable or unwilling to table. Many slashers conduct campaigns for LGBT rights in Russia and have acquired quite the reputation even in other Russian webforums where their work has become the controversial topic of debate. The importance of slash lies in the importance of imagination as a political strategy. We never think of imagination in this manner but it can be argued that it is a site that envisions possibilities for change and therefore has radical potential.

What we therefore see in the intersections of popular culture and new media in Russia is the emergence of political publics – you can call them counter-, intimate- or imaginative publics. Here we witness unspectacular pronouncements that may well be alternative visions for Russia. These practices and conversations are not about regime change, but they are an ongoing negotiation of social, cultural and political norms. I believe mundane exchanges such as these may embody real opportunities for a reinvigorated politics in Russia because they are the substance of everyday, routine conversation. Russia’s digital spaces of unspectacular politics are enduring, consistent and deceptively innocuous; no one thinks about shutting them down. This makes it all the more vital that we understand their significance for the shaping of everyday political discourses and vocabularies in Russia.

Sudha Rajagopalan is assistent professor in East European Studies at the University of Amsterdam.

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lgbt nederlands

Transgenders translated in Europa

In Nederland kennen we het programma Hij is een Zij waarin jonge transgenders worden gevolgd in hun transitie naar man of vrouw. Begrippen als trans en genderidentiteit knallen via het beeldscherm de huiskamer in bij Hein en Bep uit Anna Paulowna. Zij hadden werkelijk nog nooit van deze termen gehoord, maar zien in dat het ook maar mensen zijn.

Zichtbaarheid is hét sleutelwoord voor tolerantie en acceptatie van de transgemeenschap.

De media hebben die sleutel grotendeels in handen. Nederland mag zich gelukkig prijzen met een Arie Boomsma, maar hoe worden transgenders in de rest van Europa afgebeeld?

RUBEN WISSING geeft ons een overzicht van drie Europese mediarepresentaties.

Verenigd Koninkrijk Transgenders komen in principe maar weinig voor in de Britse media. De lijst van transgenders in mainstream cinema is korter dan het oeuvre van Meryl Streep.

Voor lange tijd was het stereotype beeld van de transvrouw, gevalletje bloke in dress, gebaseerd op de bekende sketch ‘I’m a Laydee’ van Little Britain.

Een onschuldige grap, maar deze weergave van een dusdanig onbekende minderheid heeft enorme impact op hoe de maatschappij tegen echte transgenders aankijkt. Daarnaast vind 78 procent van de Britse transgenders deze stereotypen zeer inaccuraat. Portretten als deze kunnen direct worden gelinkt met verbaal en fysiek geweld waar de geschatte 600.000

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Britse transgenders mee te maken krijgen.

Projectgroep All About Trans geeft sinds 2014 cursussen over genderidentiteit en –diversiteit aan journalisten van de grote Britse tabloids. Dit initiatief werd gestart na de zaak van Kate Stone, een Britse transvrouw die aan de dood ontsnapte op vakantie in Australië. In het nieuwsbericht over het ongeval was het laatstgenoemde bijzaak. De journalisten waren meer geïnteresseerd in wat er nou wel of niet tussen haar benen bungelde tijdens het ongeval. Kate Stone werd in het gelijk gesteld en de zes grootste Britse kranten worden sindsdien wegwijs gemaakt in de genderwereld door All About Trans. Wat mij betreft een ontwikkeling om lyrisch van te worden.

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Rusland Sinds de wet tegen ‘homoseksuele propaganda’ uit 2013 – waar ook de transgenders onderdeel van uitmaken – zijn er niet per se minder transgenders, travestieten, queers, crossdressers en andere gendervariaties te vinden in de Russische media. Ontkennen en verdoezelen van Kremlins meest ongewenste minderheid is niet langer mogelijk. Homoseksualiteit en transseksualiteit zijn onderwerp van gesprek in grote tv-debatten. Dit gebeurt vaak in gezelschap van uitgesproken politici en cabaretiers die op satirische wijze Jean-Claude Juncker in een jurk de grond in boren. De meest extravagante travestieten en transgenders, die zo

“De journalisten waren meer geïnteresseerd in wat er nou wel of niet tussen haar benen bungelde tijdens het ongeval”

“Conchita Wurst komt voor in menig Russisch educatief spotje met een groot rood kruis door het gezicht”

veel mogelijk afwijken van de blanke heteroseksuele Rus met traditionele normen en waarden, zijn symbool komen te staan voor de Westerse propaganda.

Het bekendste voorbeeld is misschien wel de Oostenrijkse drag artiest en Songfestivalwinnares Conchita Wurst. Zij komt voor in menig Russisch educatief spotje op staatstelevisie met een groot rood kruis door het gezicht. In 2015 is een wet aangenomen waarin transgenders en andere mensen met een afwijkende seksuele identiteit (waaronder ook fetisjisten) verboden wordt auto te rijden.

De Westerse ‘gay-invasie’ waarvoor wordt gewaarschuwd, moet door middel van dit soort wetten en mediastunts de Russische jeugd in het gareel houden.

Beeld: Skellefteå, een stadje in Västerbotten, Noord-Zweden. Hier zit het met de beeldvorming rond transgenders wel snor.

Zweden Met genderneutrale toiletten, een ‘geslachtsneutraal’ persoonlijk voornaamwoord en speelgoed dat onduidelijk voor hem of haar is, zijn de Zweden al jaren voorloper op gebied van genderidentiteit en -emancipatie. Het woord hen werd in 2014 opgenomen in de Zweedse taal en kan verwijzen naar een persoon waarvan het geslacht onbekend is of er niet toe doet. Het werd echter al jaren daarvoor gebruikt in spreektaal.

Deze vooruitstrevendheid zit dus al diep verworven in de Zweedse samenleving.

Waar in veel landen de tolerantie en acceptatie van homo’s en lesbiennes net op gang komt, zijn in ieder geval de Zweedse media en autoriteiten die fase al

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voorbij. Qua wetgeving en zichtbaarheid is voor deze groepen al veel gedaan.

Diversiteit in gender en seksualiteit reikt echter veel verder. De beste manier om de meest kleine minderheden een stem te geven, is via de traditionele media. Met documentaires, reportages en portretten worden alle mogelijke gendervariaties uitgepluisd en aan het publiek getoond. En dat is goed voor mensen uit omgevingen waar vragen over genderidentiteit en seksualiteit niet gesteld worden. Er wordt wel eens beweerd dat de Zweden te ver doordraven in het emancipatieproces.

Volgens mij kan dat niet. Er is vast iemand tussen Malmö en Skellefteå die zich gehoord voelt als jij zegt je meer kat dan mens te voelen.

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geschiedenis nederlands

‘we should forget 9/11 ‘ De Brits professor Maja Zehfuss, gerenommeerd geleerde binnen het veld van internationale betrekkingen, publiceerde in 2003 een interessant artikel over de herinnering van 11 september 2001. Volgens Zehfuss zouden de aanslagen op de Twin Towers in New York vergeten moeten worden, omdat deze de aanzet zouden hebben gegeven voor ingrijpende en nare ontwikkelingen in de strijd tegen terrorisme. We zijn ruim vijftien jaar verder en nog steeds ligt 11 september vers in het geheugen en zijn de gevolgen nog altijd zichtbaar binnen de internationale gemeenschap. Vooral de politiek en media in de Westerse wereld lijken de gebeurtenissen van 11 september 2001 niet los te kunnen laten.

MICHELLE KOOIMAN

A

ls afgestudeerde Europese studies-student in de richting geschiedenis durf ik mijzelf toch wel een historicus te noemen. De eerste les die ik daar heb geleerd is dat men moet leren van wat er in het verleden is gebeurd. De geschiedenis is bepalend voor de toekomst. Om deze reden lijkt het mij niet waarschijnlijk dat we de gebeurtenissen van 11 september 2001 kunnen laten rusten. Toch is dat precies wat Zehfuss oppert dat wij moeten doen.

De pijnlijke beleving en herinneringen van de aanslagen zouden gebruikt zijn door de Amerikanen om Irak binnen te kunnen vallen. Niet lang daarna werd er ook geïntervenieerd in Afghanistan. Nu we een aantal jaren verder zijn kunnen we zeker concluderen dat de war on terror weinig succesvol is gebleken. Niet alleen de oorzaak bleek een ingrijpende gebeurtenis, het gevolg is minstens zo erg, aldus Zehfuss. Zo zijn bij de aanslagen in New York ruim 3000 mensen omgekomen, maar de conflicten in het Midden-Oosten hebben veel meer mensen het leven gekost, ruim 100.000. Het gevolg lijkt dus heftiger dan de oorzaak en daarmee hebben de aanslagen geleid tot nog meer ellende. Toch heeft ‘11 september’

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nog altijd meer impact op mensen uit de Westerse wereld dan de narigheid die is voortgekomen uit de interventies in Irak en Afghanistan. Dat komt grotendeels door de media die voordurend refereren aan de aanslagen.

“De media hebben geholpen om een beeld te schetsen van een kwaad wat bestreden moest worden”

Zehfuss heeft kritiek op de manier waarop 11 september 2001 wordt geframed.

Sinds de aanslagen is er een us versus them-beeld ontstaan. De toenmalige president George W. Bush heeft namelijk gesproken over een strijd tussen us, oftewel Amerika of het Westen, en them, de terroristen. Zehfuss bekritiseert dit fenomeen, omdat identiteiten van

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betrokken partijen worden geconstrueerd.

Het gevaar is dat er op basis van die beelden omstreden beleid gemaakt kan worden. Het Amerikaanse beleid in Irak is daar bij uitstek het voorbeeld van.

Dit geconstrueerde beeld is duidelijk terug te vinden in berichtgeving. Na 11 september werd op televisie en in kranten gesproken van een veiligheidsdilemma dat was ontstaan. Amerika was vernederd op eigen grondgebied en een antwoord mocht niet uitblijven. Grote koppen met niet mis te verstane bewoordingen als ‘Bastards!’ sierden de voorpagina’s van gerenommeerde kranten. De media hebben geholpen om een beeld te schetsen van een kwaad dat bestreden moest worden. Dit argument is zeker legitiem te noemen, gezien de ingrijpende gevolgen van de aanslagen, echter blijkt het niet mogelijk om de gebeurtenissen van 11 september te vergeten. We worden namelijk steeds geconfronteerd met de herinnering aan die fatale dag in 2001. Er worden jaarlijks terugkerende ceremonies gehouden om de gebeurtenissen te herdenken en deze worden breed uitgemeten in de media. Toen de aanslagen werden herinnerd tien jaar na dato, werd er een livestream van de hele

ceremonie vertoond op de Nederlandse publieke omroep. Kortom, de media maken het niet mogelijk om 11 september 2001 te doen vergeten. De media helpen ons om te blijven herinneren en maken het daarmee lastig om grote, ingrijpende gebeurtenissen te laten rusten. Zehfuss’ advies om de aanslagen te vergeten zal dus niet snel ter harte worden genomen.

Het lijkt nu wellicht of dit stuk is geschreven om de media te bekritiseren om hun methodes van verslaggeving, maar niets is minder waar. Het is geen nieuws dat berichtgeving, van welk medium dan ook, gekleurd is en dat complete objectiviteit haast onbereikbaar is.

Daarnaast worden nationale tragedies van grote, westerse landen nu eenmaal breder uitgemeten in de media dan soortgelijke tragedies in niet-westerse landen waar conflicten aan de orde van de dag zijn.

De terroristische aanslagen in Parijs van 2015 hadden, bij elkaar, verhoudingsgewijs niet zoveel slachtoffers te betreuren als soortgelijke aanslagen in het MiddenOosten. Toch werden dagprogramma’s op

televisiezenders van meerdere Westerse landen direct aangepast om live verslag te kunnen doen van de gebeurtenissen.

Hoewel Zehfuss dus eigenlijk zegt dat de gevolgen van 11 september 2001 veel ernstiger waren dan de daadwerkelijke aanslagen zelf en dat we daarom de

“We do not remember something that has already happened the way we experienced it then” vreselijke gebeurtenissen van die dag beter achter ons kunnen laten, lijken vooral de media een grote rol te vervullen wat betreft hoe erover wordt bericht. “We do not remember something that has already happened the way we experienced it

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then.” Hiermee lijkt Zehfuss te suggereren dat actie ondernemen op basis van de herinnering van een nationale tragedie gevaarlijke gevolgen kan hebben. Door de media kunnen elementen worden uitvergroot of kunnen betrokken partijen in een bepaald daglicht worden geplaatst.

Hoewel de argumenten van Zehfuss erg aannemelijk zijn, ben ik van mening dat bepaalde ingrijpende gebeurtenissen niet vergeten mogen worden. Door de gevolgen van 11 september 2001 weten we wat een tragedie van formaat kan veroorzaken. Vandaag de dag zitten we wellicht in een vergelijkbare situatie.

De terroristische aanslagen in Frankrijk hebben ervoor gezorgd dat er een coalitie ten strijde is getrokken om Islamitische Staat te vernietigen. Wellicht kunnen we lering trekken uit de visie van Zehfuss en ons bewust zijn van de rol die de media spelen door hun manieren van verslaggeving. Het is niet mogelijk om 11 september 2001 te vergeten, maar we kunnen ons wel bewuster worden van de uitwerkingen die een ingrijpende gebeurtenis kan hebben.

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ses events calendar 31 March - FIELD TRIP TO MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS, THE HAGUE In the context of the yearly Dutch Ambassador Conference, the SES has been invited at the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs to get in conversation with UvA alumnus and Dutch Ambassador to Romania Stella Ronner-Grubacic. This short visit to the Ministry will provide you with a look into the Dutch political system and opportunity to talk to someone in the field.

1 April - CONFERENCE: IMAGINING EUROPE, CREA This year’s conference is about the influence of media in Europe on journalism, civilians and politics. Speakers like Chris Aalberts, Caroline de Gruyter and Bas Eickhout will lead us through this interesting topic. In this special conference themed EuroVisie, our editors wrote articles wherein media is a central topic. Haven’t read it already? Have a look inside!

5 April - PUB QUIZ II, SANDERS On the 5th April we’ll be hosting the second pub quiz of the year. But there’s a twist! This time we’ll be joined by some of our lecturers and seminar professors. So start looking for teammates because we only have a limited amount of spots. The teams will have to be a maximum of six students and we’ll try to assign a professor to each team!

14 April - SES PARTY: LET’S GET PHYSICAL, AKHNATON There’s an exciting event coming up! In the beginning of April, SES will organise a sporty party for SES members and friends. Get your sweatbands together and practice your drinking skills, because it’s time to connect sports and liver failure in a way that has never been seen before.

On Thursday 14 April we’ll party hard in Akhnaton, with some special focus on sports. Let’s get physical! Tickets are available for 7 Euros.

29 April - STUDY TRIP, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA, CROATIA, AND MONTENEGRO By the end of April, we will trade our beloved Amsterdam for Zagreb, Split, Sarajevo and Kotor. During a ten-day trip we will visit museums, embassies, picturesque cathedrals and enjoy the beautiful nature and weather.

(c) Studievereniging Europese Studies 2016 / www.ses-uva.nl / info@ses-uva.nl